Georgia debacle

It appears that the two Democrat candidates for U.S. Senate out of Georgia, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, have defeated their Republican opponents in the runoff elections. While Warnock has been projected to have defeated Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Ossoff's race against Sen. David Perdue has yet to be called as of early Wednesday morning. However, it appears Ossoff is in good position to win. 

Sure, the Democrats turned out in numbers close to what they put forth in November's general election. However, the Republicans cumulatively got north of 50% of the votes in Congressional, State House and State Senate races two months ago. The only race they failed to reach that mark was the presidential contest. All that said, the GOP would have coasted to victory in these runoffs had they just turned out in similar numbers to previous runoffs. But they didn't, and Erick Erickson explains why. 

To the extent the election was stolen, the GOP stole it from itself. To the extent there was malfeasance, the President running ads on Atlanta radio this very week that the election was stolen is the malfeasance, not local boards of elections. To the extent there is misfeasance, the state GOP chair in Georgia attacking the Republican Secretary of State and lying about what happened in November is the misfeasance, not local boards of elections.

And, by the way, I would note that for those trying to rewrite history, Brian Kemp actually made a good pick with Kelly Loeffler, who would have won had the GOP not sabotaged itself.

The state’s Republican Party should resign en masse. They spent so much time re-litigating November and picking fights with their own Georgia Republicans that they did not do too much for December. Yes, the party failed. Look for David Shafer, the state party chair, to run for statewide office claiming to be a Trump defender. I just cannot see him credibly staying as party chair being the first Republican Party chair in the state since the early 2000s to see the party devastated.

The President ran ads over the past week telling Republicans that the Georgia election was stolen. He came in the night before the election and spent most of his time attacking the GOP. He too helped suppress the vote. His voters did not vote. Yes, the President deserves some blame here.

The Georgia congressional delegation also told everyone Georgia and its Republican Secretary of State were collaborating with Democrats to steal the vote. So Trump voters did not show up. They took the my way or the highway approach. The area of state that saw the GOP mostly like to stay home is the area of the state with the QAnon Congresswoman who has vocally complained the election was stolen and everything is rigged.

It really was amazing.

If there is any silver lining out of this whole debacle, it appears the GOP can now cut ties with the toxic Trump and start charting their own course forward. That strategy was implemented by the other Republican statewide candidate on Tuesday. Again, Erickson explains. 

The candidate is named Bubba McDonald. He’s the Chairman of the state’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. McDonald, a Democrat turned Republican, got more votes than any other candidate in any other race. He got more votes than Ossoff, Warnock, Perdue, or Loeffler even though he was the last race on the ballot.

How?

He was in no way connected to Trump; his race was not a referendum of Trump; he did not run on nightmare scenarios, creeping socialism, or culture war; and he kept his head down.

In fact, McDonald had limited money and just focused on keeping power costs low in Georgia. If there is a silver lining for this, it’s that a Republican can win statewide in Georgia and shut out the Democrats if they can find a way to run without every having to talk about Donald Trump.

For the first time since 2010, the Democrat party will control the White House, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, though it will hardly be the mandate they believe given it's a 50-50 split in the Senate with V.P. Kamala Harris breaking all ties. And just like that, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is arguably the most powerful figure in Washington. Let's hope he's good for his word in his commitment to prevent a "progressive" utopia.  

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