A few days before the runoff elections for two decisive Senate seats in the US state of Georgia, one of the candidates went into quarantine. The Republican Senator David Perdue had contact with a corona infected person, as his election campaign team announced on Thursday. Although Perdue and his wife have so far tested negative for the novel corona virus, the two are now in quarantine.
Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will challenge Republican incumbents Perdue and Kelly Loeffler next Tuesday. According to surveys, close duels for the two Senate seats can be expected.
The runoff election was necessary because none of the candidates in the November 3 congressional election could win the absolute majority required. So far, Republicans have held the posts with Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
Record attendance is already emerging. More than 2.8 million eligible voters took the opportunity to cast their votes before the actual vote on January 5, according to state data released on Thursday.
That is significantly more than in the Senate election in 2008 when a total of 2.1 million votes were cast. The outcome of the runoff election decides whether the future President Joe Biden can govern with the support of a parliamentary majority, or whether he is faced with a divided Congress, which could make it much more difficult for him to implement many projects or fill important cabinet positions.
As things stand, the Republicans of the elected President Donald Trump have 50 seats in the Congress Chamber with 100 senators, Biden’s Democrats 48. The Republicans only have to win one of the runoff elections in Georgia to continue to hold a majority in the Senate.