The four vital faces in the Georgia runoff elections

Georgia is all set to witness two highly-anticipated Senate runoff elections on January 5, deciding which party is going to have the majority in the US Senate.

If Democrats manage to win both the runoffs they will secure a 50-50 tie in the Senate and effectively a majority, as in case of a tie, Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris will be the deciding vote.

However, Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator since 1996. 

Reverend Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidate in on one of the two Georgia Senate seats, is by no means a stranger to politics. Among racial disparity glaringly clear in the face of the American public, with police brutality claiming lives in the streets, Warnock’s candidature, the first black candidature on a statewide race since Thurbert Baker in 1997, is nevertheless special for the Democratic Party and for Warnock himself.

Warnock’s election trajectory has seemingly pushed him more and more towards the spotlight, as simultaneously his features have deviated more and more from that of a traditional pastor, with him defending criticism against the United States, with his denunciation of racial privilege, and his support of issues such as abortion rights.

Understandably, there have been attempts from the Republican quarters to paint him rather radically. A past arrest of Warnock for which charges were later dropped and an incident of his ex-wife calling the police were stressed upon notably by the Right of centre in recent times.

Warnock’s Republican challenger for the Senate seat is Kelly Loeffler. She, unlike most politicians, had a relatively humbling start to her life which Loeffler thinks is the root for all the values and qualities she posses today.

Loeffler grew up on a domestic farm in the heart of rural America and believes this makes her appreciate the hardworking lives of Americans. She graduated from the University of Illinois and later went on to pursue her MBA at DePaul University.

Before being sworn in the US Senate recently to take the place of Senator Johnny Isakson, Kelly was the CEO of a financial technology organisation that she founded herself. She is running against Warnock in the elections.   

For the second Senate seat Jon Ossoff, a native to the state of Georgia, will be waving the Democratic flag. Ossoff has had his fair share of political insights and practice through his career trajectory and is challenging Republican David Perdue.

Ossoff graduated from Georgetown University and further pursued a Masters in Sciences from the London School of Economics. Ossoff is also an Investigative Journalist and has been serving as the CEO for Insight TWI after letting go of his political career in 2012.

Jon previously worked as a political staffer for Congressman Hank Johnson and assisted him in areas related to Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Economic policy and more. 

In 2017, he ran as the Democratic candidate in Georgia’s special election for the sixth district, which he lost by a thin margin of 3%.  The US businessman is all set to give Ossoff a tough fight in the elections. 

On the Republican side, one of the wealthiest of the Senators, David Perdue, carries the business legacy of his family known for their meat products. The businessman-turned-senator who claims to have generated jobs for his fellow Americas for the last 40 years, told Fox News that Americans will be choosing between an oppressive socialist government or to continue to enjoy the freedoms that we all cherish, AFP reported.

In the final laps of his campaigning, the Trump supporter had to be sidelined after testing positive for COVID-19. His Democratic rival, Ossoff, has alleged that he used early data about the coronavirus pandemic that he received during a confidential Senate briefing to enrich himself, according to AFP.