Since the US election took place in early November, the state of Georgia has been the topic on everyone's lips.

The reason is that the election in the state will determine which party wins the majority in the Senate.

- It is important to have a majority in the Senate because it is part of the Congress where the laws are enacted.

This is a local election that has national significance, says Dag Blanck, professor of North American studies at Uppsala University.

"Most expensive ever"

If Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win more votes than Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, Democrats will get 50 of the Senate's 100 seats.

In such a situation, it is the vice president, Kamala Harris, who gets the casting vote.

- It has been a very intense campaign and a lot of money has flowed in.

It's the most expensive Senate campaign ever.

Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have participated in the campaign to provide support to their candidates, says Dag Blanck.

Looks to be even

Dag Blanck does not want to say about the outcome of Tuesday's election, but opinion polls indicate that it will be an even race.

Georgia has long been a Republican state, but as we saw in the presidential election, Georgia is one of the states that is about to change in that respect.

Joe Biden won Georgia with very little overweight and therefore there is hope among the Democrats that they will be able to win even at the senate level, he says.

May be forced to go to the right

The Senate is in many ways the most powerful of the two chambers of Congress.

In addition to the fact that new laws must be approved by the Senate, it appoints judges to, among other places, the Supreme Court and approves ministers and other appointments.

If the Republicans win the seats in Georgia instead, it would mean difficult and long negotiation processes for Joe Biden and his party.

- This means that he has to go a little to the right in certain issues to get senators with him and the left wing within parity will not like that, says Dag Blanck. 

- But one must remember that the party system in the US is much more weakly developed than in Sweden.

The senators often vote according to their own opinion and are quite independent, says Dag Blanck.