Michael Edens can see it in his mind: tractors, cattle trailers, Harley Davidsons and hot rods – really, any wheeled vehicle he can tie an American flag to – parading across the Interstate 85 overpass on Sunday afternoon, a show of force in his rural Georgia town.
It will be a parade, he said, to celebrate America, “the greatest nation that’s ever existed.”
Edens, 53, a heavy machinery mechanic who wears a big, black cowboy hat and quotes liberally from the Bible, believes that now is the time for Republicans like him in rural Georgia to stand up and fight. With the rally and parade he’s organizing on Sunday afternoon in his hometown of Carnesville, Edens hopes to encourage his neighbors to speak up for President Donald Trump, and to go out to vote for Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in Tuesday’s runoff elections.
And with the parade of farm vehicles stretching across the interstate, he wants to “catch the attention of everybody from California to New York State, right here in Carnesville, Georgia, so they know when they come into the rural areas how the rural people feel.”
If they want to win on Tuesday – and if Republicans want any chance of maintaining control of the Senate – Loeffler and Perdue need passionate supporters like Edens to help them get out the vote in places like Carnesville, a blue-collar town of about 600 people at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Carnesville is the kind of place where tractor dealers outnumber big-box stores, and where truckers hauling lumber or crates of chickens rumble through don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it downtowns.
And it’s the kind of place where almost everyone you meet is a Republican. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo: elijah nouvelage/Reuters |
Republicans across the country are pouring an unprecedented amount of money and resources into Georgia to try to hold their Senate majority by winning at least one of two runoff elections on Tuesday.
Four outside groups associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) alone have invested $138.5 million in the races. The Georgia Battleground Fund, a group supporting both Republican incumbents and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, set fundraising targets for each of the 50 states to pump about $50 million into advertising and the Georgia GOP’s voter turnout operation.
Democrats are also investing heavily in the races, as expenditures by the campaigns and outside groups have reached well beyond $500 million, making them among the most expensive Senate races in history.
Historic trends favor Republicans. Since the early 2000s, the Republican Party has dominated Georgia politics and the GOP controls both chambers of the legislature and every elected statewide office. Since 1988, Republicans have also won every statewide runoff in Georgia except one in 1998, mostly because of a drop-off in Democratic turnout.
That reliable pattern was thrown into question in November when President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in Georgia by 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to capture the state since 1992.
In the Senate contests, Republicans David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler fell short of garnering the 50%-plus-one-vote threshold set by state law to avoid a runoff race. Mr. Perdue, 71 years old, must beat Democrat Jon Ossoff, 33, a filmmaker, to return to the Senate; his term has lapsed and his former seat will remain vacant pending the outcome of the election. Ms. Loeffler, who was appointed to her post after the previous senator retired because of health reasons, is running against Democrat Raphael Warnock, a pastor. Her term hasn’t expired yet. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
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