Election After The Election: One Senate, Two Seats, Four Candidates

On November 3, election night, it’s hard to pinpoint any one state as Ground Zero for the United States presidential elections, because several states were cliff-hangers. I was in the political hotbed state of Georgia on November 6. The next day Georgia, along with Pennsylvania, flipped blue, and handed Democratic candidate Joe Biden 16 and 20 electoral votes respectfully. With this the septuagenarian challenger crossed the 270 landmark.

The last time Georgia went Blue was during Arkansas native Bill Clinton’s maiden run in 1992. Ninety-six-year-old former US President Jimmy Carter would have hardly fathomed being around long enough to see his home state as the lone blue oasis in a red conservative deep south desert.

I quipped to friends that since I brought liberal luck to Georgia, my purpose in the state now shifts to teaching incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue, who deliberately mangled Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ first name in a derogatory manner, how he should pronounce my rather complex last name.

Georgia is locked in a Senate run-off race after neither of the four candidates acquired the mandatory 50 percent majority to win the election. Seventy-one-year-old Perdue is facing a much younger opponent in Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff, who at 33 isn’t old enough to run for US President. Meanwhile, in the special election, GOP appointee Kelly Loeffler is defending her seat against a Democrat pastor, Rev Raphael Warnock.