While polls suggest that the state’s crucial runoff elections are up for grabs, Republicans have grown worried about strong turnout in Democratic areas and mixed messages from President Trump.
Senator Kelly Loeffler issued a now-familiar warning during a campaign event on Wednesday in Bibb County: If Democrats win the Georgia Senate runoff elections, there will be little left to stem a rising tide of extremist socialism in America. But Dale Washburn, a Republican state legislator who introduced Ms. Loeffler at the event, had another warning. This one was based not on ideology, but on numbers that suggest Democrats are outpacing Republicans in early voting turnout — which means that Republicans may need a tremendous election-day performance on Jan.5 if they are to win the state’s two high-stakes runoff races and maintain control of the Senate. “We’re fully aware of the energy on the other side, and think we’ve been reminded about that,” Mr. Washburn said. “We know demographics have changed in recent years. And if our side hasn’t been aware of that, they’re rapidly becoming aware of that. The Biden victory had a big part.” Less than a week before election day, the last-minute challenges, messages and strategies for the two parties in Georgia’s runoffs are coming into focus, even as polls indicate that the elections are too close to call. Those messages will be hammered home on the day before the elections by President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who plans to campaign on Monday in Atlanta, and by President Trump, who will hold a rally on the same day in Dalton, a city in northwest Georgia. However, some Republicans are increasingly worried that Mr. Trump, who continues to make the baseless claim that he lost Georgia because of a rigged voting system, is sending confusing signals to his followers that may serve to keep them home on election day. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump on Twitter pushed for the resignation of Gov. Brian Kemp, a staunch conservative and Trump supporter who has declined to take steps to overturn the state’s election results. The president argued that Mr. Kemp was an “obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia.” As Mr. Trump continues to foment a backward-looking drama, Ms. Loeffler and her fellow Republican candidate, Senator David Perdue, have crisscrossed the state, warning of an ominous future if their Democratic opponents, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, prevail. Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, Mr. Perdue said the Republicans were a “last line of defense” against centralized government, comparing his struggle to military conflicts like World War II. On “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning, he added: “We’re winning this race right now. Kelly and I are all over this state. We’re running against two of the most liberal candidates that the Democrats have ever put up.” Democrats, for their part, have been crafting messages that they hope will resonate with African-Americans, a constituency crucial to Mr. Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in November. One TV ad released on Wednesday for Mr. Ossoff featured former President Barack Obama, who says that Mr. Ossoff will pass a new voting rights act if elected, while the musician John Legend plays a rendition of “Georgia on My Mind.
