Poll: Dead Heat in Georgia Senate Runoffs

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Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty, Spencer Platt, Megan Varner/Getty
Hannah Knudsen

Republican Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and their respective Democrat challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, are in a dead heat just weeks ahead of the January 5 runoffs, according to an RMG Research survey released last week.

Scott Rasmussen conducted the survey November 19-24, among 1,377 likely voters in the Peach State. The survey showed Ossoff edging out Perdue by one percent, 48 percent to 47 percent — a lead well within the survey’s +/- 2.6 percent margin of error. Five percent of likely voters remain unsure. However, Perdue takes the lead among a smaller group of voters who say they will “definitely” vote — 50 percent to Ossoff’s 47 percent. That margin of error for that group is +/- three percent.

Similarly, Warnock leads Loeffler by two percent, within the margin of error. The slight lead, however, switches to Loeffler’s column among a smaller group of individuals who say they will “definitely” vote:

Thirty-nine percent of the likely voters surveyed were Republicans, 39 percent were Democrats, and 21 percent were independent voters.

The margin of error is +/- 2.6 percent among likely voters and +/- 3 percent for definite voters.

Politico IQ added that “data released earlier showed that, by a 46% to 42% margin, Georgia voters would prefer Republicans to control the U.S. Senate.”

The balance of power in the Senate will be determined by the results of the January 5 runoffs. If both GOP incumbents, Perdue and Loeffler, lose their seats, the Senate would split 50/50, giving the power to the party controlling the White House.

Loeffler and Warnock faced off in a debate on Sunday, in which the Republican incumbent contrasted herself with her Democrat challenger, whom she described as a “radical liberal” who “wants to fundamentally change America into a socialist country.”

“But Chuck Schumer said it best, now we take Georgia, then we change America,” she said in her closing statement. “They would increase our taxes, open our borders, socialize our health care, and my opponent, radical liberal Raphael Warnock, is his agent of change.”

Perdue, however, skipped the debate against Ossoff, with his campaign noting that the two have “already had two debates in this election.”

“In each, Ossoff lied repeatedly, and of course the media failed to hold him accountable. He refused to talk about the issues and could not defend his radical socialist agenda. If Ossoff wants to keep lying to Georgians on TV, he will have to use his out-of-state money to pay for it,” Perdue’s campaign stated last month.

Ossoff still showed up, debating an empty podium. When asked what he would have asked his Republican challenger, had he participated in the debate, Ossoff said, “I think what I would ask him is why he continues to oppose $1,200 stimulus checks for the American people at this moment of crisis”:

“Why he fought against them in the first place, and why he isn’t in Washington right now championing direct financial relief,” he said before calling the senator a “coward.”

“If the senator were not too much of a coward to debate in public, then that’s what I’d ask him,” he added.

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