What the polls say about David Perdue and Jon Ossoff 2 weeks ahead of the Georgia election

Sen. David Perdue and Jon Ossoff are heading for a close election, although the polls have shifted in favor of the incumbent senator in recent days.

Postal and in-person voting for the second round of elections in Georgia has already started and there are roughly two weeks left until Election Day. With Senate control at stake, Democrats and Republicans have a vested interest in the outcome of the race between Perdue and Ossoff and the Georgians have already voted around 500,000 votes.

On average, Perdue has a 0.8 point lead over his Democratic challenger, according to FiveThirtyEight, a margin that allows for a statistical tie. The most recent poll came out of Emerson College on Thursday and gave Perdue a 3-point advantage, a lead that is within the poll’s margin of error.

Of the 600 people polled, 51% said they would vote for Perdue and 48% planned to support Ossoff. Democrats lead among younger voters and Republicans have an advantage over those over 45.

Given that there are a limited number of voters planning to vote for a Republican in one race and a Democrat in another, Spencer Kimball, director of Emerson College Polling, suspects a party would win both seats. .

If Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock, who challenges Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler for his second-round seat, oust the two Republicans from office, there will be a 50-50 split in the Senate. This effectively puts the Democrats in control, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will vote all the necessary deciding votes.

President-elect Joe Biden took advantage of the postal vote and it turned the tide of the election in his favor. President Donald Trump has largely dissuaded voters from voting by mail, but this time around the president and vice president pushed Georgians to vote by any method available.

Emerson’s poll found that 61% of those who previously voted voted for Ossoff and 39% voted for Perdue. However, 68% of those polled who plan to vote on Jan.5 plan to vote for Perdue.

One of the top voters’ priorities in the Georgia election is the response to COVID-19 and in this area Ossoff is leading among voters. The Democratic candidate has been a staunch supporter of a second round of stimulus checks and hit Perdue for not having the same level of enthusiasm about the measure.

Perdue voted in favor of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security) law in March, but spoke out against direct payments on a personal level.

In November, Perdue received about 80,000 more votes than Ossoff, but since he failed to meet the 50% threshold required to win an election in Georgia, it forced the race into a second round. Although he had the advantage in November, nothing is guaranteed in January and pollsters expect the race to come down to the edge.