December 5, 2022
Georgia voters decide tomorrow in the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff race between Democrat incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
But why should the rest of the country care? Spoiler alert – you should.
First, as of Monday morning, 1.85 million Georgians had already cast an early ballot but millions more are still eligible to vote on election day.
So why does this particular seat matter to the entire united states?
It all has to do with power.
The reality is, regardless of who wins tomorrow in Georgia, democrats will retain control of the United States Senate.
If Senator Warnock wins re-election, that would give Democrats 51 seats in the Senate. That is still far less than the 60 votes they would need to overcome the filibuster and pass legislation on their own. But having a simple majority of the chamber will allow the Democrats to call the shots on how the Senate is organized, which bills come to the floor for a vote and who gets selected as the head of important committees. Having one extra seat would also give Democrats some room when it comes to getting their entire caucus to vote for a bill. You’ll remember Democrat Senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have been able to stop legislation from passing but having one more democrat vote, lessens their power to slow things down.
If the Republican candidate, Herschel Walker wins that will get us right back to where we’ve been for the last two year. A 50-50 Senate with the Vice President, Kamala Harris breaking the tie. Technically that means the Democrats have the majority but when it comes to the Senate’s every day workings, the Democrats and the Republicans have a power sharing agreement.
