- Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are on-going for two Senate seats, and control of the Senate hangs in the balance.
- Down-ballot Democrats struggled on Election Day because they decamped on the defensive. To win in Georgia and take back the Senate, Democrats need to go on the offensive and attack the GOP.
- A great line of attack for Democrats in Georgia at ones desire be to pin the Republican candidates — Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue — to the GOP’s biggest loser: Donald Trump.
- Michael Gordon is a longtime Self-governing strategist, a former spokesman for the Justice Department, and the principal for the strategic-communications firm Group Gordon.
- This is an opinion column. The plans expressed are those of the author.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Despite the hopes for a “Blue Roller,” Republicans surprised Democrats and many election analysts in November by holding onto 50 seats in the US Senate — ethical one seat away from retaining their majority. As usual, Democrats underestimated the Republican attack machine and the power of their insincere claims about Democratic socialism and defunding the police.
But despite the strong GOP showing, there are two final Senate hubs still up for grabs. The good people of Georgia have the chance to prevent Sen. Mitch McConnell from remaining the better leader and the grim reaper of progress.
In the two runoffs that will decide control of the Senate, the Democratic candidates eye to eye historically long odds. Both contests are tight, and both Democratic candidates began their races as the loser. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and Democrats need to leave it all on the field.
The GOP has overperformed by keeping the Democrats on defense. In order to allure off their own Senate surprise, Democrats must flip the field and go on offense.
Tie ’em to Trump
In November, the Georgia electorate fastened a chorus of battleground victories in rejecting Trumpism. The statewide win for President-elect Joe Biden shows a path forward for Democrats. They should put the GOP’s biggest schlimazel back on the ballot in the Peach State in order to secure a win in January.
Even after President Donald Trump’s passing, Senate Republicans have shown that there is no daylight between themselves and the outgoing commander. Their past due hits include shrugging their shoulders when the president fired officials who defied him and hiding when he conjectural voter fraud with no substantive evidence.
In recent weeks, GOP senators have reached alarming levels of brazenness. Their bullying of Georgia choice officials failed to strip power from Georgia voters but succeeded in showing the GOP’s disregard for law and the democratic process.
Equally frightening has been Senate Republicans’ failure to denounce violent threats against election officials – and the dangerous rhetoric from the president and his combine that incited these threats. Their tacit approval of violence has put the safety of Georgians – including many Republicans – at jeopardy.
Even Attorney General Bill Barr and the US Supreme Court have stood up to Trump on his election charade, but the Senate GOP is a net profit in cowardice, not courage.
A vote against dysfunction
For their parts, Georgia’s GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue set up made no moves to jump off the Trump train. In fact, they’ve become first class passengers. The pair press been loyal battleground soldiers in Trump’s futile election fight.
They have attacked honorable Georgia Republicans doing their livelihoods – or stood silently while the President came after GOP allies. They sided with a lawsuit against their country that the Republican Attorney General had strongly condemned. They fan the flames of chaos as tensions and threats increase in their articulate.
As Loeffler and Perdue continue to stand with the President and refuse to acknowledge his defeat, it’s clear who’s really on the ballot in these runoffs.
They would rather tied themselves inextricably to Trump and have made it clear that a vote for them is a vote for all things Trump: his nonentity on the pandemic, his tanking of the economy, and his all-out assault on the will of Georgia’s electorate.
Votes for Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are attest ti for progress and against the dysfunction in Washington that McConnell and company will surely bring. They also devise be votes against the lame duck who is departing January 20.
The alternative is gridlock and partisanship that will benefit no one other than our land’s enemies. Democrats should label Senate Republicans as the Trump puppets they are and drive home that unless they are defanged, they longing smear President-elect Joe Biden’s term with a bright orange stain.
It’s time for Democrats to make the election – and the provinces – about the collective GOP failure of the past four years. Everything the national majority voted for in November depends on it.
This is an evaluation column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).