Why control of the US Senate may be held up by Georgia

When the dust settles next month and all the ballots are counted, Americans still may not know until January which party will control the United States Senate for the next two years, thanks to an unusual confluence of events in Georgia. Two Senate seats in that state are up for grabs at the same time, and if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, state law forces a runoff election on January 5 – two days after the rest of Congress is sworn in. Some 10 Senate races are rated competitive this year, giving Democrats a chance of erasing the Republicans’ 53-47 majority. That could lead to a bitter post-November 3 political fight in a largely Republican state with a growing Democratic electorate. Why there are two Senate seats up for election in Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue is up for re-election, according to the regular six-year US Senate election cycle. First elected in 2014, he is now in a tight contest against Democrat Jon Ossoff, an investigative journalist and media executive. Georgia’s other Republican senator, Kelly Loeffler, was appointed in 2019 to succeed former Senator Johnny Isakson, who retired. Her seat is now up for grabs in a special election that has drawn 21 candidates, including Republican US Representative Doug Collins and Democrats Raphael Warnock and Matt Lieberman. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">