The Republican candidates in the Georgia runoff elections have lost the seats and as a result, the GOP is no longer in control of the Senate.
Analysts believe that the reason for this defeat was Republicans’ stance against the $2000 stimulus checks. Many Republicans had already feared that this would hurt their chances in run-off elections.
Whether Americans should be provided larger stimulus checks or not was a burning issue in the days leading up to the election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had also warned Republicans against opposing the larger stimulus checks, as the move would heavily affect their campaign in Georgia, as reported by the New York Times.
According to Business Insider, McConnell collaborated with the Democrats to introduce the $600 stimulus checks which were included in the $900 billion coronavirus relief package.
McConnell expected this move to put an end to the ongoing debate on stimulus checks without affecting Republicans’ hold in the upper house. However, President Donald Trump unexpectedly restarted the debate. He criticized the deal and called for the stimulus checks to be increased to $2000. The Democrats took advantage of this opportunity to draft another bill with the $2000 proposal, which McConnell blocked.
Even though Trump had threatened that he would veto the decision, he later signed the $600 stimulus checks. However, he is still demanding the Senate to ratify the $2000 stimulus checks package, and this unexpected opposition to the Republican stance led to a lot of confusion for the GOP.
The two Republican candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler had initially decided that they would highlight the relief package during their campaign, however, after Trump’s sudden demand; they had no choice but to support his demands and criticize the bill.
According to FiveThirtyEight, In Georgia, the Republicans were lagging behind the Democrats by 1-2% because the Republicans were being constantly attacked for their stance on the stimulus checks relief package.
This allowed the Democrats to gain the support of the people of Georgia. President-elect Joe Biden addressed the voters in his speech in Atlanta, reiterating his stance that the $2000 stimulus checks will be deposited in bank accounts immediately if the two Democratic candidates, Ossoff and Warnock win the election.
