WASHINGTON — Georgia for more nearly three decades has supported the Republican candidate in the presidential election.
But President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are in a dead heat in the state, with Democrats bullish on their chances of winning the Peach State.
Polls are beginning to close in the state at 7 p.m. ET. But some counties and precincts have extended their voting hours, with some citing voting issues earlier in the day.
In the days ahead of Election Day, both candidates and their campaigns aggressively campaigned in the state. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, stopped in the state on Sunday, just days after Biden himself visited the state. Trump held a rally in the state Sunday. President Barack Obama stumped Monday in Atlanta for Biden.
"We win Georgia, we win everything," Biden said at a drive-in rally in Atlanta last week.
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Recent polling shows Biden with a slight lead over the president. A Monmouth University poll published last week showed Biden with 50% support and Trump with 45%. The Peach State has 16 electoral votes.
Georgia hasn’t gone for the Democratic candidate since 1992, when Bill Clinton ran for president the first time. During Clinton’s reelection campaign, the state supported Republican Bob Dole, who lost.
Before the 2016 election, polling showed Trump leading Democrat Hillary Clinton, and he went on to win the state by 5 percentage points.
But two competitive U.S. Senate races, one a special election, paired with record turnout, could benefit Democrats.
More than 3.9 million people in Georgia voted early, almost matching the total number of votes cast during the 2016 when about 4.1 millions voted. Early in-person voting ended Friday. At least another 2 million voters are expected on Election Day.
"It'll be a barnburner," Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a press conference Friday.
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Democrat Jon Ossoff is faces Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue in the regularly scheduled Senate race. The two candidates are in a dead heat, and if neither earns 50% of the vote, the race goes to a runoff. The race is one of several that Democrats are eyeing in hopes of winning back the Senate majority.
There is also a special Senate election for Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler seat. Loeffler was appointed to the position after Sen. Johnny Isakson resigned last year, and she is being challenged from both within and outside her party, by Republican Rep. Doug Collins and Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia key battleground for Biden, Trump in presidential election