Biden and Harris to campaign in Georgia in final days before Senate run-offs
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are poised to make a final push in Georgia ahead of the state’s high stakes Senate run-off elections next week.
Biden will campaign in Atlanta on Monday just before the run-offs on January 5, and Harris will travel to Savannah on Sunday, per an advisory first shared with CNN. This will be the second visit to the state for both the President-elect and vice president-elect as they campaign for the Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, in hopes that the party will gain control of the Senate.
The President-elect’s Monday trip to Georgia will coincide with President Donald Trump traveling to Dalton, Georgia, for a rally with the state’s incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on the eve of the run-off elections.
Control of the chamber hinges on next week’s match-ups. If Democrats win both races, the Senate makeup would be 50-50, positioning Harris to serve as the tie-breaking vote and setting up an easier path for Biden to advance the agenda he promoted during his campaign.
During Biden’s last stop earlier in December, which came on the heels of the Electoral College affirming his victory, he slammed Perdue and Loeffler, arguing that they stood by and “fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes.” He urged Georgians to vote as if their lives depended on it.
“Send me these two men,” Biden said during the drive-in rally for the two Democratic candidates, “and we will control the Senate and change the lives of people in Georgia.”
Campaigning at a virtual rally for the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns at the start of the month, former President Barack Obama bluntly told voters, “The special election in Georgia is going to determine, ultimately, the course of the Biden presidency.”
Biden’s trips to the state come after he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since former President Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992. Biden’s success was fueled by an accelerated grassroots organization and an increasingly diverse constituency.
Aside from the in-person visits, Biden’s presidential campaign has invested significant resources in the run-off, spending nearly $5 million on the races, a campaign official told CNN earlier this month.
He has shifted 50 paid staffers, and about a dozen additional analytics and tech staffers, from the campaign to help with efforts in the state that range from organizing, outreach and voter contact, focusing their efforts specifically in suburban Atlanta and the smaller cities where Biden performed well during the election.
Biden has also been raising money directly for Ossoff and Warnock, with the amount nearing $10 million, per the official.
