Senate race results remain unknown until 2021
The runoff elections in Georgia will decide the final Senate count, which will result in either a 50-50 party split or another Republican Party majority term. Graphic by HARRY LADA, Art Director
Having secured the presidency, the Democratic Party continued to hold a lead in the House of Representatives after the 2020 election. But whether or not the Democratic Party can secure a victory in the Senate race remains unknown until 2021. With 50 Republicans, 46 Democrats and two third-party senators who lean left currently confirmed, neither party controls the Senate until two January runoff elections in Georgia are called.
According to Georgia law, candidates must receive a 50% majority of the vote to win an election, and if no one does so, the top two candidates advance to a runoff election. Since neither candidate in the two Senate races received a majority vote, Republican David Perdue and Republican Kelly Loeffler are, respectively, being challenged by Democrat Jon Ossoff and Democrat Raphael Warnock.
According to The Associated Press, Perdue secured 49.7% of the vote and Ossoff received 48%. In the second race, Warnock received 32.9% and Loeffler had 25.9%. If the Democratic Party can secure two Democratic seats in Georgia, then the Senate will be split 50-50, as the two third-party senators, Independent Bernie Sanders in Vermont and Independent Angus King in Maine, caucus with Democrats.
An evenly divided Senate may prompt voting ties, which would be broken by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. This means Democrats would have more control over passing left-leaning legislation.
David Shafie, a Chapman University political science professor, told The Panther that two Senate victories in Georgia will allow President-elect Joe Biden more opportunity to govern and pass the legislation he has promised.
“Biden will be able to get his cabinet confirmed more easily (and get) judges confirmed to vacancies on the federal bench without having to negotiate with a majority leader from the other party,” Shafie said. “He’ll be able to get his agenda through the Senate, especially his economic agenda, and rebuild the economy to bring us out of the recession we are in.”
However, if one or both of the Senate seats result in Republican victories, the Democratic Party loses the tie, and Biden will face an increased struggle in passing healthcare and tax reform through Congress.
“(Republican victories) will call Biden’s agenda into question,” Shafie said. “He’ll have to compromise a lot of those things that he wants, and might not get them at all.”
Although Georgia voted for Biden – the first time the state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 28 years – experts are unsure how far the state will go to enact blue candidates in other forms of office. Two more Senate seats is all that holds Democrats back from controlling both the executive and legislative branches of government, which contrasts the newly elected 6-3 Republican majority in the Supreme Court, after Justice Amy Coney Barret’s Oct. 26 confirmation.