The fate of the United States Senate could not be more important, with Democrats and Republicans alike campaigning for their party to get a seat. The winner of this election will determine which party has majority control of the Senate. The runoff election in Georgia was caused by Georgia’s unusual election system, where if a candidate does not receive 50% or more of the votes, a runoff occurs. The candidates for Senators are Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for the Democrats, and David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for the Republicans.

At the time of writing this article, January 6, 2021, almost all of the votes for the candidates have been collected. According to multiple sources, such as the Associated Press and NBC News, Democrat Raphael Warnock has won a Senate seat against Republican Kelly Loeffler. The race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue is still too close to call. Jon Ossoff is currently in the lead, but only by 0.4%. The race is likely to be called by the end of the week, if not sooner.

As mentioned previously, the reason that this runoff election, in particular, is so important is that if both Democratic Senators win, the Senate will essentially be in their control, with future Vice President Kamala Harris having to break the tie (if the two Democratic Senators win, the Senate will be split 50/50). If the Republican Senators win just one seat, the Senate will be in their control as they will have the majority, and the current Senate Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnel will not be replaced. 

If the Democrats win both seats in the Senate, this will be very unusual for Georgia, as it is a primarily Republican state. The majority of votes from Georgia in the 2020 United States Presidential Election were Democratic, but only by 0.2%. That margin is so small that it can be easily changed. It is very key for both the Republican and Democratic Parties to advocate as much as they possibly can because Georgia evidently can now flip-flop between being a “blue” state and a “red” state. 

Interestingly, this runoff election is so crucial that Joe Biden and Donald Trump were both campaigning in Georgia to spread awareness and hopefully sway the opinions of Georgian voters. 

According to CNN, President-Elect Joe Biden said in his speech, “‘If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now… And if you send David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler back to Washington, those checks will never get there.’”

Joe Biden’s approach to enticing Georgia voters to vote for the Democrats was trying to tackle a recent issue. Just last week, the idea of changing the amount of money on the second stimulus check from $600 to $2,000 was presented to Congress. The bill was presented to the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who agreed on it, and then to the Senate, where it did not happen, due to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel blocking it. Joe Biden claims that electing these two Senators will get people more money, which will incline them.

Also according to CNN, President Donald J. Trump said in his speech, “Trump… called Perdue “‘a great gentleman’” and Loeffler a “‘fantastic champion”’… ‘Kelly is a staunch defender of our incredible military. I’m so proud of our military. She supports the wall, and she always stands with the heroes of law enforcement, ICE and Border Patrol.’”

Donald Trump’s approach to getting Georgia voters to vote for the Republicans was trying to show them how great they are. He is proving to them that if they vote for them, they will do great things for the country and that they will stand with the Republican Party. Voters might be more interested to know about the Senators who they are voting for and what they stand for, as opposed to what they will do when elected.

This election truly will decide the fate of the United States and also the fate of Joe Biden’s future Presidency. If he is able to have control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, it will be much easier for him to get his legislation passed, as opposed to a Senate controlled by the Republicans, where they might block more of his ideas, disagreeing with them. All of the elections in the past year have been extremely close, but at the same time, also great, because it shows that more people are going out to vote and are trying to make their voice heard in who should manage their government.