Mike Pence tells Georgia voters: ‘If you don’t vote, they win’

COLUMBUS, Georgia — Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday the stakes are too high for voters in Georgia to stay at home in the Senate runoff races.

Mr. Pence said he understands voters are frustrated and have doubts about the November election.

But he urged them to recognize that they have a chance to thwart the Democrats’ “radical left agenda” and preserve President Trump’s accomplishments by electing Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the Jan. 5 races.

“I hear some people say it down here in Georgia, if you are frustrated about the last election, just don’t vote,” Mr. Pence told the hundreds in the attendance, many of whom waited in the bitter cold hours to see him. “My fellow Americans, I say from my heart, if you don’t vote, they win.”

“So for all we’ve done and all we’ve had yet to do, for our president, for our future, for Georgia and for America, cast a vote for all that President Trump has accomplished. Cast a vote to send David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler back to Washington, D.C.,” he said.

The visit was Mr. Pence’s fourth to the state since the Nov. 3 election, underscoring the competitive nature of the Senate races, and the sense that Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock could win.

Democrats are hoping the momentum from President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s victory here will carry over into the Senate races, which will decide which party controls the upper chamber.

Mr. Pence was also scheduled to appear in Macon with Mr. Perdue and Ms.. Loeffler.

Met with chants of “four more years,” Mr. Pence said the Trump administration would continue to fight for every last legal vote in the 2020 election and against every last illegal vote.

He urged voters to pray ahead of the runoff races and pray for the health of the nation.

Mr. Pence said Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler would get in the way of the Democratic push for higher taxes, open borders, socialized medicine, a Green New Deal and “packing the courts.”

“I came here today with one message: It all comes down to Georgia.,” he said. “So stay the fight. Stay in the fight for integrity in our elections, stay in the fight to defend the Republican majority in the Senate. Until the polls close on Jan. 5, you stay in the fight until we send David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler back to Washington, D.C.”