Georgia’s midterms uniquely characteristic of national sentiments

With Georgia now in the national view as a swing state, Americans are looking to the Peach State to secure the houses of Congress for their party of choice.

In Bibb and Houston counties, citizens are deciding who will fill three Congressional seats: the Congressional District 2 race between Chris West and Sanford Bishop, Jr., the District 8 Race between Austin Scott and Darius Butler and the US Senate race between Raphael Warnock, Chase Oliver and Herschel Walker.

Georgia Democrats are fighting hard in a midterm that expert polls-analyst Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report says is anything but typical, and things are going to be close.

“As we have been discussing, though, especially Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, those are states where we expect to not have an answer on election night, Georgia going to a run-off. Both sides seem to agree that race is going to go into extra time,” Walter said in a discussion on PBS.

Charlie Cook, another writer for the Cook Political Report, recently put out a piece about the pattern returning to form in the 2022 midterms, with Republicans likely to take in a large number of seats in the Congress.

“In terms of the House, there is a reason why a president’s party almost always loses seats in midterm elections, which has happened in 37 out of 39 (92%) of midterms since the start of the Civil War. Voters in the party out of power are almost inevitably more motivated than those who share a party affiliation or lean toward the president’s team,” Cook wrote. “The chances of Republicans scoring a net gain of more than 15 or 20 House seats have gone up, and the chances of Democrats holding on or even keeping their losses down to single digits appear to be diminishing.”

But Democrats have some advantages. With Republicans putting forward legislation that has been hailed as voter suppression, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade late this summer, voters who would usually be independent, and would swing opposite the president’s party for the midterm elections, could potentially endorse Democrats.

Politicians in the Democratic party are leaning hard into the legislation, pushing against the restrictions and encouraging voters to engage in the American political system. Sen. Raphael Warnock spoke recently after Georgia Senate Bill 202 passed in a senate judiciary committee examining the bill, hoping to encourage federal intervention or counter-legislation, but also to encourage voters.

“America is a land where possibility is born of democracy, our vote is our voice, a chance to help determine the direction of our country and our destiny within it.” Warnock said. “Politicians in our state legislature responded not in celebration but in retaliation. They could’ve gotten busy having not seen the outcome some of them wanted, they could have gotten busy changing their message or adjusting their policy.

Instead they got busy changing the rules as if the democracy belongs to them, and not the people.”

Henry Keating is a Mercer University student working with the Telegraph this semester.