Biden holds rally in Georgia on eve of runoff elections
President-elect Joe Biden revved up the Democratic base in Atlanta on Monday, ahead of the all-important Senate runoff election in Georgia.
Mr. Biden urged voters to cast their ballots for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, as they face off against current Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Republicans can maintain their hold on the chamber if just one of their candidates win, while Democrats need to win both to achieve a 50-50 split, which would make Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote.
"We won three times here," Mr. Biden joked, a reference to the Republican challenges against the election results that still ultimately resulted in his victory.
The president-elect directly linked the Democratic candidates to the $2,000 stimulus check bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied a vote in the Senate.
"If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now," Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden isn't the only high-profile person in the Peach State on Monday. President Trump is rallying his supporters in the state Monday night, and Vice President Mike Pence urged voters to help the Senate keep its Republican majority in a Monday rally as well.
Mr. Biden won Georgia by more than 11,00 votes, one of the biggest surprise flips in the 2020 presidential race. Over the weekend, President Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him and other officials to "find" enough votes in the state's presidential election to make him the winner, according to audio of the call obtained by CBS News.
During the call, which Mr. Trump had revealed in a tweet earlier Sunday, the president told Raffensperger, "All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."
A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Raffensperger's office received 18 phone call attempts from Mr. Trump since November 3 but Saturday was the first time the two officials connected.
Both parties are hoping the results of the presidential election will motivate their bases to turn out.
Republican incumbent Perdue led Ossoff, his Democratic opponent, by more than 80,000 votes, but failed to get the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. The other race was a special election to fill retiring Senator Johnny Isakson's seat. Warnock received the most votes in his race, but the prominent Republicans, incumbent Loeffler and Congressman Doug Collins, received more votes combined than he did.
More than 3 million Georgians voted early, with 2.07 million of those voting in person and 928,000 by mail, according to Georgia Votes.