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BUENA VISTA, Ga (AP) – On the grounds of a courthouse in southern Georgia, many masked and socially distant voters bowed their heads to pray for the more than 260,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus.
Then Democratic Senate hopeful Raphael Warnock took the microphone, vowing to push for more economic aid for businesses and people affected by the pandemic and touting Democratic plans to address racial disparities and long-standing wealth highlighted by the crisis.
A day earlier, Vice President Mike Pence had campaigned with Warnock’s opponent Senator Kelly Loeffler and fellow Republican Senator David Perdue. But in highly Republican northern Georgia, there have been few reports of the public health calamity that contributed to the defeat of President Donald Trump: aid programs that passed Congress ago. has months and a vaccine that is still weeks – or months – of mass distribution.
“By the end of this year, we’re going to see 40 million vaccines across America,” Pence predicted, attributing the possibility to “President Donald Trump’s leadership.” His crowd – distant only in some seating sections and many not wearing masks – roared as the vice president added a kick: “We’re in the realm of miracles.
Two very different worlds are on display in Georgia, where the national political spotlight is on the two Senate towers that will determine which party controls the chamber at the start of President-elect Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. Republicans need one more seat for a majority; Democrats need a sweep on January 5.
For Republicans, the pandemic is secondary in a flow blitz defined by dire warnings about what it would mean if Warnock defeated Loeffler and Perdue fell to Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. Democrats, meanwhile, are more than keen to discuss COVID-19 and its economic fallout. The messaging differences also impact public health protocols on both sides. The approaches largely follow the fall presidential campaign, when Trump wanted to talk about anything but the virus, while Biden focused his speech on Trump’s handling of it.
November’s results in Georgia explain why neither side is deviating. Biden cut Trump in state from under 13,000 to over 5 million votes. But Perdue led Ossoff by around 100,000 votes, finishing just short of the clear majority Georgia needs to avoid a runoff. Warnock led Loeffler in a separate special election. The two sides share a common conclusion: each party has a pool of potential voters approaching 2.5 million. It’s just a question of which side can convince the most to vote in the second round.
Republican retaliation will still depend – in part – on generating enthusiasm through in-person campaigns, even as coronavirus cases rise nationwide. Trump has announced his intention to hold a December 5 rally in Georgia, after weeks of speculation over whether he would come amid his continued refusal to concede to Biden. As with the president’s rally blitz in October, there is no suggestion that his event in Georgia will include social distancing or require masks, as recommended by public health officials.
Neither Perdue nor Loeffler echo the president’s mockery of public health standards. But so far in the second-round campaign, they have hosted several indoor events without social distancing and without mandatory masks. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, appearing with Loeffler, drew hundreds of suburban Republicans to the Cobb County GOP headquarters, surprising organizers and cluttering the facility to the point that some voters left without trying to enter.
Florida Senator Rick Scott drew a similar crowd to a restaurant in suburban Cumming for an event with the two incumbents in Georgia. Days later, Scott said he tested positive for COVID-19 and was exposed the same day he traveled to Georgia.. Loeffler also later announced her own positive test, though consecutive negative tests followed in the days that followed, leading her to end a brief quarantine..
Loeffler acknowledges the pandemic in his standard speech highlighting her and Perdue’s votes for the Spring Economic Relief Package.
Warnock and Ossoff against with an almost exclusively external or virtual campaign. Warnock has, however, curated outdoor photo lines that don’t involve social distancing.
“We haven’t seen any real national public mourning because it’s the kind of death that doesn’t come all of a sudden,” Warnock told Reynolds, where he campaigned under a picnic canopy. outside. “We don’t see any real recognition of what’s going on. … Meanwhile, we have a debate about science. Wearing a mask is somehow a political statement? No, this is not a political statement. It is common sense. “
Ossoff kicked off the second campaign cycle with a statewide tour of drive-in rallies similar to the ones Biden used after Labor Day. Ossoff went to solitary confinement in July after his wife, an OB-GYN, contracted COVID-19. His ads often show him greeting voters with masks.
Both Democrats also criticized Loeffler and Lost for timely stock trading after a series of private Congressional briefings on the then-burgeoning pandemic.
“While you were taking refuge, she was protecting her investments,” Warnock told Buena Vista.
A recent announcement from Ossoff says Perdue “took advantage of the pandemic” instead of “preparing our country.”
Senate ethics officials and the Justice Ministry found no legal wrongdoing in the financial activity of Georgian senators.
Ossoff also sought to tie Perdue’s loyalty to Trump to the pandemic. The president has spent weeks asserting baseless allegations of electoral fraud in Georgia and other battlefield states Biden has won, without Perdue disputing the claims.
Trump’s efforts for an orderly transition, Ossoff said in an interview, hampered Biden’s ability to stage a government response to the coronavirus.
“What Senator Perdue should do, if he had the best interests of the people at heart and not just his own,” Ossoff told The Associated Press, “is to encourage the president to recognize reality. ”
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Associated Press writer Ben Nadler contributed to this report from Atlanta.
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