Georgia Senate rivals David Perdue, the Republican incumbent, and Jon Ossoff, the Democratic challenger, both framed the Jan. 5 runoff elections as a battle for the fate of the nation on Sunday.
Georgia’s Senate seats, both currently held by Republicans, are the “last line of defense against this liberal socialist agenda that the Democrats will perpetrate,” Perdue told “Sunday Morning Futures.”
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“We heard [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer say just last week if we take Georgia we change America,” Perdue said. “We heard [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] say they have to have these two seats because they don’t want to negotiate. They want total control, and so what’s at stake is this: that Schumer will change the rules in the Senate so they can do anything they want.”
Senator David Perdue (R-G) asks questions during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. May 6, 2020. Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS
“That is the Green New Deal, they want to defund the police, open borders, they want to have sanctuary cities, they want to cut the military spending after we’ve just begun rebuilding it after [President] Obama’s decimation of it and then take away our private health insurance,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Ossoff said Democrats need to flip the Georgia Senate seats so that Democratic President-elect Joe Biden can accomplish his agenda.
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“There are hundreds of thousands of lives hanging in the balance,” Ossoff told ABC’s “This Week.” “There are millions of jobs and homes and livelihoods hanging in the balance. That’s why it’s so important to win these two Senate races so that the incoming presidential administration can govern, can lead, can enact the solutions necessary to contain this virus and invest in economic recovery.”
“The GOP at the national level has no leader, has no message and has no vision other than stopping Joe Biden,” Ossoff continued. “But we are in a crisis. We need leadership. We need to make sure that Joe Biden can govern and this administration is successful.”
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Jon Ossoff speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Atlanta. He is facing Republican Sen. David Perdue, a top Trump ally, in a Jan. 5, 2021 runoff. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
The runoffs, which also have Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., taking on Democrat Raphael Warnock, will decide which party controls the Senate. Election results so far give the upper chamber 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.
That means Democrats must win both of the runoffs to make it a 50-50 Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris having the tie-breaking vote.
Georgia state law dictates a runoff if no candidate reaches 50% of the vote, a threshold that Perdue narrowly missed.
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He currently stands at 49.71% in the count, with nearly all votes counted. Ossoff trails by over 2 percentage points.
Fox News’ Julia Musto and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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