Donald Trump Jr. Urges Georgians to Back Loeffler, Perdue in Senate Runoffs

Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter on Monday to urge supporters of President Donald Trump to vote in the Georgia Senate runoff on January 5 after “seeing a lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out & vote.”

Trump Jr. speaking up on this matter establishes the formal position of the first family and the president’s allies on where they stand with regard to the Georgia Senate runoffs and once and for all dismisses the notion that the president or his allies want the president’s supporters to sit out the all-important elections upcoming on January 5. The battle is already on in Georgia, as absentee ballots already went out a few days ago, and political leaders from both sides are descending on the state to back their various candidates.

But there had been concern from the GOP side of a growing share of voices on the right—that does not represent the president or his supporters—urging people to sit out the runoffs depending on what happened in the president’s challenge of the election results from the November 3 presidential election in the state. In those results, Democrat Joe Biden currently leads Trump, but the president is challenging the results and seeking a second recount. Some on the right claiming to speak for the president’s supporters had been warning they would sit out the runoff fight if they did not get their way in the presidential election challenge. But Trump Jr. stepping forward makes clear those voices do not represent what the president’s most ardent supporters should want.

“I’m seeing a lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out & vote for @KLoeffler and @PerdueSenate,” Trump Jr. wrote. “That is NONSENSE. IGNORE those people. We need ALL of our people coming out to vote for Kelly & David.”

Trump Jr.’s remarks came after some people offered different messages, including attorney Lin Wood, who suggested that he “will not” vote in the runoff election featuring Republican candidates Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) because he claimed they are “doing little or nothing to support efforts by GA citizens to address unlawful election & need for @BrianKempGA to order special session of legislature.”

“Let’s speak truth about @SenLoeffler & @sendavidperdue,” Wood wrote. “Why are they doing little or nothing to support efforts by GA citizens to address unlawful election & need for @BrianKempGA to order special session of legislature?”

“If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff,” Wood added. “Will you?”

Others, like activist Ali Alexander who is behind a number of #StopTheSteal rallies, have offered similar messages in recent days:

But Trump Jr. speaking out on Monday morning with a clarion call to his father’s supporters in Georgia seems to put to bed this notion that Trump supporters might stay home in Georgia’s Senate runoffs. The president’s eldest son, sources familiar with the matter said, intends to be aggressive in his support for Loeffler and Perdue in the runoff elections.

This also comes as Trump’s legal team of Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis formally distanced themselves from attorney Sidney Powell over the weekend. Giuliani and Ellis—the president’s lawyers—issued a statement saying that Powell is not part of their legal team nor was she ever formally retained despite her speaking at a press conference at the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week alongside Giuliani and Ellis. Powell had suggested that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was financially compromised by Dominion,  a voting tabulation software company that has been the subject of allegations surrounding the presidential election. Despite Trump’s team distancing themselves from Powell—which comes after Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked her for evidence of her claims that she has thus far not provided—Powell said she intends to continue on her quest on her own.

What’s more, Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer made clear in response to the tweet from Trump Jr. that Republicans in the state will keep fighting for the president’s side in the presidential election:

Nonetheless, the president’s closest allies are clearly gearing up for battle in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs, regardless of whatever happens in the recount and legal challenges in the president’s own reelection race in the state. This comes as the left is already locked and loaded trying to steer these two U.S. Senate seats into Democrat hands, which if that happened would split the Senate 50-50 among Republicans and Democrats. In such a scenario, whoever controls the White House would control the Senate—meaning that if Biden emerges victorious in the election challenges Trump is still pursuing, the vice president of the United States would then be now-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). Harris, per the U.S. constitution, would be the tiebreaker, throwing the control of the upper chamber of Congress to the Democrats—thereby allowing the left to control the floor of the U.S. Senate and committee structure.

Because of what’s on the line in Georgia, the left has already deployed significant resources to try to shift the Senate battle towards the Democrats. Earlier this month, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams announced that more than 600,000 mail-in ballots had been requested for the runoff election. A voting rights group founded by Abrams has already reportedly dropped $2.7 million ahead of the runoff election.