Campaigning continues in Georgia amid runoff elections

Marquise Francis, Yahoo News National Reporter & Producer joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to discuss the latest election news out of Georgia.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Let's go to Georgia, now. The state completed a recount of the votes there. And the results are officially in. President-elect Joe Biden has taken the state, which means that all eyes are now on the Senate runoff races for not one but both Senate seats inside the state. And if Democrats manage to take them both, they will gain a majority in the Senate.

We have Yahoo News National Reporter Marquise Francis live in Georgia now with all of the details. Hi, Marquise.

MARQUISE FRANCIS: Hey, good afternoon, Kristin. Thanks for that. Yes, I'm in Canton, Georgia where the vice president actually is speaking right now, joined by Senator David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. As you mentioned, Georgia was confirmed to go to President-elect Joe Biden, but President Trump still has not conceded.

And just shortly minutes ago, the vice president said the Republican Senate majority could be the last line of defense. And that "could" is quite, you know, significant because a lot of Republicans here are still not comfortable with the fact of saying Joe Biden has won the state.

And I talked to the secretary of state, A Republican, earlier this week. And he said, look, I'm a Republican. I voted for Trump twice. I've given him money. But I will make sure that this race is done fairly. Yesterday, I was in Perry, Georgia, where Senators Perdue and Loeffler were joined by Senator Tom Cotton. And they're really making this race a national race.

One of the things that they talked about is being the last line of defense. One of Kelly Loeffler's go-to lines is, we are the firewall, Georgia. They're really empowering Georgians to go and vote. And once again, the secretary of state actually mentioned early this week, as well. He believes Trump actually lost himself the race by suppressing the vote with these mail-in ballots and discouraging people to do so.

So there's definitely been a lot more rhetoric around early voting, getting these mail-in ballots up. And I want to go to a sound bite where Senator Perdue, yesterday, talked about this being a moment for Republicans. We can play that now.

DAVID PERDUE: Every generation seems to have its moment. Our parents, most of us, were members of the great generation. My dad and mom lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War. My dad served in World War II in Europe and in Korea, twice. And you know, they had their moments. And this is ours.

This is the moment of the truth. We're the last line of defense. Believe it or not, right now, in Georgia. None of us asked for it. I sure didn't ask for this. Kelly Loeffler didn't ask for this. But here we are. This is our moment of challenge.

MARQUISE FRANCIS: Right. So that soundbite is really indicative of what the Republican senators here who are seeking re-election are saying to Georgia voters with this January 5 runoff, which, as you mentioned, really will control the power of Congress.

It hasn't been since '92 that Georgia went blue in the presidential election. It's been some time since they've had a Democratic Senator, if at all. So there's-- a lot of stakes are on the line right now. There they have Vice President Mike Pence in town. He's here. He's going in Gainesville in just a couple of hours. But like you mentioned, all eyes are on Georgia, because this is such a pivotal race.