What the polls say about David Perdue and Jon Ossoff a month ahead of the Georgia election

If the polls hold true, the election between Senator David Perdue and his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, next month will be very close because at this point it’s anyone’s victory.

Ossoff edged Perdue in the November election by just 1.8 points, but a WXIA-TV poll released Thursday put him ahead of the outgoing Republican by two points. It’s within the poll’s margin of error, so SurveyUSA pollsters said the results should only be taken as proof that “every vote will be critical” in the Jan. 5 runoff election.

In many states, whoever receives the most votes in the November election wins the Senate seat. However, in Georgia, a Senate candidate must garner at least 50% of the vote to become the winner. Perdue moved closer in November, but fell just below the 50% threshold to 49.7%, sending him and Ossoff to a run-off election.

Perdue, who has been in the Senate since 2015, has a slightly stronger hold over his party base than Ossoff has over his, according to the poll. Ninety-six percent of GOP voters responded to the poll they were going for Perdue and 94 percent of Democrats plan to vote for Ossoff.

Candidates have a chance next month to sway the 2.3% of voters who voted for Libertarian Party candidate Shane Hazel, and in a close race they could be the difference between Republicans who retain or lose control of the Senate.

If Perdue or Sen. Kelly Loeffler, an incumbent Republican who is in a run-off election of his own, retain their seats, Republicans will have a slim majority in the Senate. However, if the Democratic challengers manage to oust the Republicans, there will be a 50-50 split in the Senate. This effectively gives control to the Democrats because in the event of a tie, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will vote strongly.

Both parties are pouring millions of dollars into the Senate race and deploying their resources in Georgia. President Donald Trump is expected to attend a rally on Saturday promoting GOP senators and celebrities have asked people to come out and vote for the Democratic challengers.

It’s likely that this will only increase as the election draws closer, as it’s not just the WXIA-TV poll that shows it will be an uphill battle. A Fox5 poll conducted in Atlanta on Nov. 16 found that Perdue and Ossoff each had 49% of voter support, and a Remington Research Group poll gave Perdue a 50-46% lead with 4% of voters undecided.

While candidates and parties with a vested interest in the election will continue to push until the last ballot is tabled, early voting begins on December 7, so there are only a few days left before the number of votes is cast. available starts to decrease.