Republicans’ Georgia Fiasco

As voting is underway in Georgia’s primary and the midterms approach, one of Republicans’ top pickup opportunities, Georgia, is heating up. The state still leans right, but the GOP has yet to rally around a candidate in either race, giving Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff time to prepare for reelection while the open governor’s race continues to fuel intraparty divisions.“Georgia is still more Republican than Democratic. However...there are conditions under which Democrats can win,” Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, told Newsweek in a Friday email.John Feehery, partner at EFB Advocacy, described the state to Newsweek as a sort of political “puzzle.” President Donald Trump carried Georgia by about 2.2 points in the 2024 presidential election, after Joe Biden won the state by roughly 0.2 points in 2020. Trump won Georgia by about 5 points in 2016, while Mitt Romney won it by roughly 8 points in 2012 and John McCain by about 5 points in 2008.The state currently has two Democratic U.S. senators and a Republican governor, highlighting its increasingly competitive and mixed political landscape.Senate RaceOssoff was first elected to the Senate in January 2021 after defeating Republican incumbent David Perdue in a closely watched