ATLANTA — Monday marks an important day in Georgia politics. Early voting starts in the U.S. Senate runoffs and the Electoral College will meet and presumably name the winner of the presidential race.
Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were in front of a crowd of supporters a few blocks from the state capitol Friday. At the capitol, security barriers have been erected to prepare for a Monday meeting of the Electoral College.
Georgia's electors are expected to formally ratify the presidential election of Democrat Joe Biden – despite unsubstantiated complaints from President Trump that the election was rigged.
And even though Georgia’s electors will go for Biden – they could end up helping Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are on the runoff ballot against Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
"That should be something that tempers those passions and allows us to pivot to the Senate race," said Republican strategist Brian Robinson. "The attention of the party and partisans have been divided. And we now can focus solely and direct those energies on getting David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler elected January fifth."
Robinson said he supported President Trump's right to file legal challenges against the election he lost in November. No court has upheld any of them.
Loeffler and Perdue have energetically supported Trump’s assertions about the election, in an effort to avoid a backlash by Trump supporters.
Democrats have seemingly benefited from messaging that has suggested Republicans should boycott the runoff election – though that effort has little organization, and was dismissed by Ossoff when asked about it Friday.
"I don’t know what the political impact is," Ossoff said. "But Sen. Perdue should denounce these attacks on our electoral process" which Ossoff said disproportionately impact voters of color who helped Biden win Georgia.
After the Electoral College meets, three more weeks of campaigning will take place. Hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising have already flooded Georgia airwaves in support of candidates in the senate runoffs.
If Georgia Democrats win both seats, the US Senate would flip from GOP to Democratic control.