Biden sidestepping Georgia Senate race despite midterm election surprise

President Joe Biden is keeping his distance from Sen. Raphael Warnock‘s (D-GA) Georgia Senate runoff race as Democrats seek to expand their majority in the chamber.

But Biden’s distance underscores a contradiction between his words and actions as he attributes his performance and agenda as president, in part, to Democrats holding on to the Senate and limiting Republican gains in the House.

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After Democrats in competitive midterm elections dissociated from Biden amid poor approval ratings and a sputtering economy, the president continues to be a proverbial albatross around Warnock’s neck, according to University of Georgia politics professor Charles Bullock.

“Republicans blame Biden for inflation, out-of-control immigration, rampant crime, and high taxes that will crush Georgia’s middle class,” Bullock told the Washington Examiner. “Since, according to GOP ads, Warnock votes with Biden 96% of the time, the senator is an accomplice. The last thing that Warnock wants is to be seen standing beside Biden, which would reinforce the GOP ads that claim Biden and Warnock are working in unison.”

Instead, Warnock, who has a 4 percentage point lead on former NFL player Herschel Walker in at least one post-general election poll, is investing in advertisements that portray him as a potential partner for Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA). Kemp dispatched Stacey Abrams (D-GA) in what was a 2018 rematch 53% to 46%, or by almost 300,000 votes.

Warnock’s strategy is a response to the roughly 200,000 voters who cast their ballot for Kemp and the senator in the general election, disadvantaging Walker. Warnock notched a 38,000-vote margin of victory, but with 49% support to Walker’s 48%, he fell short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a Dec. 6 runoff. Kemp, in turn, is now attempting to help Walker after separating himself from him following allegations he paid women to undergo abortions.

“Warnock is distancing himself from Biden to the extent that he is pitching himself as a moderate who works with Republicans in the Senate,” Bullock added. “He has pointed to legislation on which he has collaborated with [Sens.] Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). The only national Democrat that Warnock will welcome is Barack Obama.”

Rather than Biden, former President Barack Obama revealed this week he will return to Georgia for Warnock on Dec. 1 after hosting a rally for him in Atlanta last month. During that event, Obama contended being a retired football player would not have automatically disqualified Walker from being a senator had he “put in the work.”

“But in the case of Rev. Warnock’s opponent, there is very little evidence that he has taken any interest, bothered to learn anything about, or displayed any kind of inclination towards public service or volunteer work or helping people in any way,” he said at the time. “Seems to me he’s a celebrity who wants to be a politician, and we’ve seen how that goes.”

Repeatedly citing the Hatch Act, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has sought to downplay speculation Biden will travel to Georgia before Warnock’s runoff. Although Warnock’s race will no longer decide the Senate’s balance of power, it could affect Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema‘s (D-AZ) influence in the chamber, a factor Republicans are amplifying.

“The president wants to be as helpful as he can to Sen. Warnock, and I will leave it there,” Jean-Pierre said during an Air Force One gaggle en route to Bali, Indonesia. “[I] don’t have anything to announce as far as any trip or plans to travel to Georgia.”

Back in the United States, Jean-Pierre has not briefed reporters on a possible trip to Georgia, preferring to underline “significant” Democratic National Committee spending on Warnock’s contest.

“I actually have not — I have not heard of a request,” she said this week. “I just don’t have anything to share on that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has also been asked whether she will travel to Georgia, but she told reporters in the Philippines she has not “made any decision yet.”

“I’m basically still trying to figure out what I’m doing tomorrow in terms of plans,” she said this week, laughing.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee published a memo with the Republican National Committee and Georgia’s Republican Party this week that points to the 400 staff members and more than 85,000 volunteers they have in the state with the aim of mobilizing voters, funded partly by Walker raising $7 million in two days.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee circulated a memo earlier that focused on Warnock’s runoff experience and his outperforming of Biden in urban and suburban counties after his team had conversations with more than 3.4 million people at their doors or on the telephone. The DSCC had already announced a $7 million field organizing program.

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