RNC ramps up staffing, volunteers in Georgia, vows to spend at least $20M ahead of Senate runoffs

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EXCLUSIVE: The Republican National Committee has sent more than 500 staffers and thousands of volunteers to Georgia for the holidays, and has committed to spending at least $20 million in the Peach State in support of GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of the Jan. 5 runoffs, Fox News has learned.

An RNC official told Fox News Tuesday that in addition to the “substantial team” already in Georgia for the general election, they have sent additional staff and recruited volunteers to deploy the GOP’s “data-driven GOTV operation.”

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The push comes after President-elect Joe Biden was certified as the winner in the state, the first Democrat to win the state since 1992. A recount there is expected to be completed this week.

“We are barnstorming the state to turn out the vote for the January 5th runoffs and the energy we are seeing on the ground is absolutely incredible,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox News Tuesday.

“In just a little over a week, we surpassed one and a half million voter contacts for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue,” McDaniel said, referring to efforts on the ground in the week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

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“Georgians know they are the fighters we need in the Senate and our country is counting on us to hold the line and defend our Republican majority against Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi’s radical agenda for our country,” McDaniel said.

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Last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., touted President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, and Democrats’ success in maintaining the majority in the House of Representatives.

“Now we take Georgia, then we change the world,” Schumer said.

The RNC has maintained that they “never left” Georgia after 2016, and in turn, have built “the largest infrastructure Republicans have ever had in the state.”

An RNC official told Fox News that ahead of November’s election, Republicans made more than 8 million phone calls, knocked on more than 3 million doors, and registered more than 16,000 voters.

“We have not stopped since November 3,” the official told Fox News, adding that the RNC deployed 100 staffers “immediately” after Election Day to Georgia to help with ballot curing and canvassing boards.

The RNC also touted their efforts across the country during the 2020 cycle, saying they built the “largest field operation in history, aiding Republicans up and down the ballot with a sophisticated ground game and data operation that is unmatched in politics.”

Together with the Trump campaign, the RNC had more than 2.6 million volunteers. The official told Fox News that number surpassed former President Barack Obama’s in 2.2 million volunteers during his 2012 re-election campaign.

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The current balance of power for the next Senate coming out of this month’s elections is 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats. That means Democrats must win both of Georgia’s runoff elections to make it a 50-50 Senate. If that occurs, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote, giving her party a razor-thin majority in the upper chamber.

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In Georgia, state law dictates a runoff if no candidate reaches 50% of the vote. Last month, GOP Sen. David Perdue narrowly missed avoiding a runoff, winning 49.75% of the vote. His Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff trailed by roughly 87,000 votes.

In the other race, appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler captured nearly 26% of the vote in a whopping 20-candidate special election to fill the final two years of the term of former GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson. The Democratic candidate in the runoff, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, won nearly 33% of the vote in the first round.

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Meanwhile, President Trump said he plans to travel to Georgia on Dec. 5 to campaign for Loeffler and Perdue. Saturday will be Trump's first trip to the state to campaign for the candidates. Vice President Mike Pence stumped for Loeffler and Perdue before Thanksgiving.

Fox News’ Paul Conner contributed to this report.