Hi, I'm Dan Pramath and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Google.

Today is Monday, November 30th.

Stocks are down, vaccine hopes are up, and our minds are on Georgia.

In five weeks from tomorrow, Georgians will go to the polls, again, this time to vote for both

of their U.S. senators after no one managed to meet the requisite 50% threshold on November 3rd.

Why it matters, this special election will effectively determine control of the U.S. Senate.

If Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loughler prevail,

then Mitch McConnell gets to keep his gavel

and make life much harder for the incoming Biden administration

on everything from legislation to cabinet and judicial appointments.

If Democratic challengers John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win,

well, that puts the Senate at 50-50,

with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker. In short, the next two years of politics

and all that flows from it is in the hands of Georgia voters on January 5th. Three quick things to know.

First, Purdue got more votes than did Ossoff on November 3rd, the same November 3rd in which Joe Biden narrowly beat Donald Trump in Georgia.

Kelly Loeffler got fewer votes than did Raphael Warnock, but the group of Republicans in her race did get more aggregate votes than did the group of Democrats.

Two, Trump still refuses to believe the November 3rd results in Georgia, despite a

hand recount, and there are some Republican concerns that his fraud claims could suppress

Republican turnout. After all, why go vote if the outcome is predetermined?

Three, she's not on the ballot, but past and future Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams may be the key to the Senate results, as she's widely credited with spearheading Democratic voter registration and get out the vote efforts earlier this month.

Bottom line, the future of America lies in Georgia.

So in 15 seconds, we will speak to Roy Barnes, the former Democratic governor of Georgia.

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