As the Georgia Senate race officially moves toward a runoff election conservatives are sounding the alarm on former President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) announced Senate candidates Herschel Walker (R) and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) will advance to a Dec. 6th runoff after neither candidate passed the 50% threshold required to claim victory. (RELATED: Georgia Election Official Confirms Senate Runoff)
As of Thursday, according to the Georgia Secretary of State's office, Walker secured 48.52% of the votes while Warnock won 49.42% of the vote. Independent candidate Chase Oliver managed to throw a wrench into the race and win 2.07% of the vote, enough to keep either candidate from crossing the 50% threshold.
The race, which has the potential to determine which party will control the upper chamber of Congress, has reminded Republicans of the last Peach State runoff in 2020 that yielded heartbreaking results for the GOP.
In 2020, Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) and Democrat Jon Ossoff managed to defeat incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R) handing Democrats control of the Senate.
Now, Republicans are hellbent on not reliving the past and are already pressing forward to help propel Walker across the finish line. However, some Republican officials say one insurance policy must be enacted to help Walker win in December — keeping Trump far away from the race.
Trump, who endorsed Walker and has been heavily involved in races across the country, has seen his influence called into question as Republicans experience fewer wins than expected in this year's midterms. Political pundits, pollsters and analysts initially predicted a “red wave” to propel the GOP to an easy victory in the House and the Senate but days after Election Day neither party has officially won control of either chamber. (RELATED: Fox News Host Has Undeniable Message for Trump)
On Thursday, Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) told CNN that associations with former President Trump hurt GOP candidates in this week's midterm elections.
“There's this … Trump drag factor, right? Everybody who's tightly associated with Donald Trump — and we watched it play out all over the country in these races — certainly watched it play out in Georgia, I mean, the drag factor is tangible,” he said on “CNN This Morning.”
“We've seen it play out all over the country. The Trump drag factor is real and it's only getting worse,” Duncan said.
In 2020, Trump's constant election fraud claims proved to be detrimental to voter turnout in the Peach State special election, a vicious cycle that is threatening to repeat itself.
Comparing Election Day 2020 to the January 5, 2021 runoffs, there was a massive dip in Republican voter turnout. Some 700,000 Georgia voters decided to stay home with Republican districts seeing bigger declines in turnout, according to data published by Breitbart:
Counties in northwest Georgia, including Walker, Whitfield, and Catoosa, voted 70–80 percent in favor of former President Donald Trump, for instance, but parts of that region saw a 19–24 percent decline in voters from the presidential election to the runoffs.
The findings coincide with several polls revealing many Republicans did not trust the results of the presidential election, a sentiment Trump reinforced as he repeatedly claimed the election was “rigged” in favor of his Democrat opponent, now-President Joe Biden.
Former Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Ky., said Trump is causing political problems for Republicans and dragging down the party's candidates.
“I think Trump's kind of a drag on our ticket. I think Donald Trump gives us problems politically,” he said during an interview in Janesville, Wis., his hometown. (RELATED: A Virginian's Perspective on 2022 Midterm Winners and Losers)
“We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot, or in office,” he said. “I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he's a drag on our office, on our races.”
If 2020 taught us anything it should be that elections cannot be won without engaged voters heading to the polls. Now is the time to defeat Democrats and save the Senate by casting your voter for Herschel Walker.
Need help casting your ballot for Walker in the Dec. 6th runoff? Click HERE!
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The GOPe needs to be defeated by Trump. We did not have the GOPe many years ago; all we had was the GOP. This cabal has GOT to be defeated by Trump. With any luck he will eventually be in a postion (with all the MAGA supporters) to break the GOPe. Once that’s done, we can concentrate on PROSECUTING the dems who ran a coup d’etat on our nation in 2020.
The race was sabotaged by Independent-Principled-MORONS. It’s great to have principles, but in the real and imperfect Planet Earth the Realpolitik wins the day. Take one side or the other side, but don’t sit on the independent fence out of childish spite.