Biden holds rally in Georgia on eve of runoff election



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President-elect Joe Biden revived the Democratic base in Atlanta on Monday, ahead of the second round of Senate elections in Georgia.

Mr Biden urged voters to vote for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, as they take on current Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Republicans can maintain their grip on the chamber if only one of their candidates wins, while Democrats must win both to get a 50-50 split, which would make Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the deciding vote.

“We’ve won three times here,” joked Mr. Biden, referring to Republican challenges against the election results that ultimately led to his victory.

The president-elect directly linked Democratic candidates to the $ 2,000 stimulus bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to vote in the Senate.

“If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $ 2,000 checks will be withdrawn, bringing hope, decency and honor to so many who are struggling now,” Biden said.

Mr Biden is not the only high profile person in Peach State on Monday. President Trump gathers his supporters in the state Monday night, and Vice President Mike Pence urged voters to help the Senate retain its Republican majority at a rally Monday.

Mr Biden won Georgia by over 11.00 votes, one of the biggest surprise flips of the 2020 presidential race. Over the weekend, President Trump called out Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him and other officials to “find” enough votes in the state’s presidential election to make him the winner, according to the audio of the call obtained by CBS News.

During the call, which Mr. Trump revealed in a Tweeter earlier on Sunday the president told Raffensperger: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than us. Because we won the state.” ”

A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Raffensperger’s office had received 18 attempted phone calls from Mr. Trump since November 3, but Saturday was the first time the two officials connected.

Both parties hope that the results of the presidential election will motivate their bases to run.

Outgoing Republican Perdue led Ossoff, his Democratic opponent, by more than 80,000 votes, but failed to secure the 50% needed to avoid a run-off. The other race was a special election to fill the seat of incumbent Senator Johnny Isakson. Warnock received the most votes in his race, but leading Republicans, incumbent Loeffler and Congressman Doug Collins, received more combined votes than him.

More than 3 million Georgians voted early, including 2.07 million in person and 928,000 by mail, according to Georgia Votes.



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