Biden, Trump to campaign in Georgia on eve of Senate runoffs

US President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden will campaign next week in Georgia on the eve of runoff elections.

The two leaders are set to hold dueling events, which will determine who controls the US Senate and the fate of Biden's legislative agenda.

The visits come as Trump escalates his fight with fellow Republican leaders in the state for not supporting his bid to overturn the election results. On Wednesday, he called for the states Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign.

Biden, who takes office on January 20, will travel to Atlanta on Monday to campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, his transition team said on Wednesday. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will go to Savannah, Georgia, a day earlier.

Meanwhile, Trump will travel to Dalton, Georgia, to hold a "victory rally" to support Republican incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

The candidates will square off in an election on Tuesday.

If the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split 50-50 with the Republican Party, giving the tie-breaking vote to Harris and control of both congressional chambers to the Democratic Party.

More than 2.5 million votes have already been cast in the runoff races, according to the Georgia secretary of states office.

If the Republicans win one or both of the Georgia seats, they will retain a slim majority in the Senate, giving them an opportunity to block Bidens legislative goals and judicial nominees.

Biden gave a speech in Georgia last month urging voters there to oust Republican Senator Mitch McConnell as majority leader by electing the two Democratic candidates.

Kemp dismissed Trumps call for his resignation on Wednesday, saying the demands and stream of complaints were a distraction from more pressing issues.

Trump, who has claimed without evidence that Democrats stole the election through fraud, has repeatedly attacked Kemp for refusing to acknowledge him as the rightful victor in Georgia. Biden won the state by roughly 12,000 votes. He called for Kemps resignation in a tweet Wednesday morning in which he called the governor an "obstructionist."

Kemp said the election process should be allowed to play out, noting that the U.S. Congress was set to meet to validate the results on January 6.

(with input from Reuters)