Rubio Campaigns for GOP Candidates in ‘Showdown of All Showdowns’ Georgia Senate Runoffs

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks during a campaign rally for Georgia Republican candidate for Senate Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), in Marietta, Ga., on Nov. 11, 2020. AP Photo/John Bazemore

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) lent his voice to Georgia Senate runoff campaigns on behalf of Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) at an event on Wednesday, warning that their defeats would mean the GOP would lose its Senate majority and hand control of the government to “radical elements.”

At the event in suburban Atlanta, Rubio warned that ceding Senate control to Democrats would open the door to left-leaning policies that would threaten free speech and undercut public safety.

“What stands in the way of all of that becoming public policy in America, even half of it becoming public policy in America?” Rubio asked people in attendance at the event. “You, through your vote in this race.”

Rubio called the Georgia runoff “the showdown of all showdowns in terms of politics and what it means,” as he sought to build momentum for Republican victories that would secure a razor-thin Senate majority.

“We don’t want to win one of them. We want to win both of them,” Rubio said of the two seats up for grabs.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) stands with Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) (R) and Bonnie Perdue, wife of Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), after a campaign rally in Marietta, Ga., on Nov. 11, 2020. John Bazemore/AP Photo

A recent race call in Alaska for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) gave Republicans their 50th Senate seat, so the GOP needs just one more seat to hold their majority. Democrats must win both Georgia runoffs to yield a 50-50 split, which, if vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) ultimately prevails in the contested election, would effectively give Democrats a majority as the vice president can serve as a tie-breaker.

Rubio warned of dire consequences if Democrats win the Georgia runoffs and alluded to failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist, and caucuses with Senate Democrats. Rubio noted progressive calls to “defund the police” and Democrats who support policies like “Medicare for All” single-payer health insurance or tuition-free public college nationwide.

“All the energy” and “all the money” in the Democratic Party, Rubio insisted, come from such forces.

“To be fair, not all Democrats are socialists,” Rubio said, adding, “But all socialists are Democrats.”

Loeffler, in a statement on Twitter, rallied support for her Senate bid, saying: “Democrats will pack the court. They will raise your taxes. And they will crush our economy with the Green New Deal.”

“I will never let that happen, but we need your help to save the majority,” she wrote.

Another prominent GOP senator to weigh in on the Georgia Senate runoff race was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who in an interview on Fox News said, “Control of the Senate hinges on the state of Georgia and if you don’t want to see the radical leftist agenda of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and AOC implemented, that Georgia Senate seat—it’s to save the whole country.”

In a similar vein, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Fox’s “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday, “If Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer and Sen. Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win in Georgia, you’ve got nothing to worry about unless you are a taxpayer, a business owner, a parent, a cop, a gun owner, a person of faith, or an unborn baby.”

Republicans are doubling down on efforts to hold their Senate majority after GOP Senate incumbents defeated well-financed challengers in more conservative states such as Iowa, Texas, and Montana, while Republican challengers beat out several House Democrats who’d won moderate districts in 2018.