A voter walks away after casting their ballot in Georgia's Senate runoff election on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
The stakes are high in Georgia as voters flock to the polls to decide which party will take control of the U.S. Senate. The state has been under fire this election cycle from Republican President Donald Trump and his supporters after voters flipped to elect Democrat Joe Biden in November.
Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga. 7th District), a freshman member of the 117th Congress, told Cheddar that Democrats are confident voters will carry the party across the finish line once again.
“What we’ve seen so far is that in a number of the congressional districts, the ones that are very heavily Democratic districts, we are already at 80 percent of the November 3 turnout, and in the more Republican districts, we are much, much lower,” she said.
According to Bourdeaux, Democrats reclaiming the majority in the Senate, through victories for both Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, is essential to advancing critical pieces of legislation that can immediately aid Americans.
“It is everything from actually addressing COVID, getting some relief to families that is desperately needed, to health care and reform and making sure that people have quality affordable health care, investing in education, making sure that our young people today don’t have that ball and chain of student debt around their ankle. All of this is on the line in these Senate races,” she said.
Both Republicans and Democrats have eyes on suburban Georgia as voters in those areas were instrumental in pushing the Biden-Harris ticket to victory. But when it comes to the Senate race, the suburbs are a toss-up, where, in many instances, voters supported a presidential candidate but did not necessarily vote along party lines down the entire ballot.
Bourdeaux described the suburban vote as a “make or break area for Georgia.”
“The bigger problem is that it undermines confidence in democracy…”
The newly-elected representative is also calling on Americans to be patient when it comes to getting the results of today’s runoff races, particularly after it took officials five weeks to certify Biden’s victory in the state.
“I tell everybody, ‘This is Georgia and we have to be very, very patient and wait for all of the votes to be counted.’ We do expect it to be a close race and that generally takes a lot longer,” she added.
Congress will face even more adversity this week as the body gears up to count electoral votes in the presidential contest. At least 13 senators and 140 GOP House members are expected to challenge the results, which, according to Bourdeaux, is unlikely to bear any fruit.
“The bigger problem is that it undermines confidence in democracy. It undermines confidence in the idea that people’s votes count and we need to make sure that we not only address this challenge but that we renew our democracy and make sure that people understand that it does matter if you vote. It does matter if you’re engaged,” she explained.
If Democrats do manage to win in the runoff elections, Bourdeaux said the focus has to be shifted to restoring bipartisan agreement among lawmakers as well as re-establishing integrity of the voting process in the eyes of Americans, especially for those that have not accepted the president’s loss.
Florida lawmakers have introduced a controversial bill restricting some discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms with young students. Supporters say the move empowers parents to have more of a say in what their children learn. Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
Congress this week passed a bill that would end forced arbitration for workplace sexual assault and harassment, one of the most significant changes to employment law in years. Cheddar News speaks with Marjorie Mesidor, Sexual Harassment Attorney, who explains that arbitrators are often retired judges or attorneys who "tends to have a more conservative view both to law and rewards."
As the situation with Russia has grown more precarious, the White House urged Americans remaining in Ukraine to leave immediately. The Biden administration that it sees continuing signs of escalation but did not have specific information detailing a timetable for a potential invasion. Kristine Berzina, senior fellow and head of the geopolitics team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, joined Cheddar News to provide her analysis. "There's talk of an impending phone call between President Putin, President Biden," Berzina said. "That is certainly a good sign to indicate that there would be significant cost."
Terrell Starr, host of 'Black Diplomats' podcast and senior nonresident fellow at the Eurasia Center for Atlantic Council, joins Cheddar News from Kyiv, Ukraine to discuss the mounting tension there.
The White House laid out plans for a $5 billion investment into a national network of charging stations to ease EV driving anxiety. Bruce Brimacombe, CEO of EV infrastructure GOe3 joined Cheddar News to discuss how much needs to be done for drivers to get over the fear of running out of energy. "People need to be able to do what they're doing now," he said. "But that is the way that if you're going to buy an electric car, you got to feel like you're not changing your world." Brimacombe noted that building out the infrastructure between cities was GOe3's own focus.
U.S. automakers are saying that the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, a crucial border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, is affecting their production lines. Michelle Krebs of Cox Automotive warns that the disruption "couldn't come at a worst time," amid chip and labor shortages in Detroit.
AND DETROIT-BASED AUTO MAKERS SAY THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN PLANTS OR SCALING BACK PRODUCTION BECAUSE OF PARTS SHORTAGES.
Plans to add affordable housing to a development in Yellow Springs, Ohio, were squashed after comedian Dave Chappelle and other community members spoke out against the project. Chappelle threatened to pull the plug on his local comedy club and restaurant projects if the development had been approved.
David Tafuri, Former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor & Former State Department Official, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest geopolitical stories from Beijing, amid China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and yet another Russian doping scandal.
Dr. Jennifer Haythe of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the latest with the pandemic, as the debate over child safety rages amid low vaccination rates and states easing school mask mandates.
