Dave Williams of Capitol Beat News Service provided this content for Polk.Today and other readers around Georgia to enjoy. Find additional state and political news at Capitol-beat.org.

ATLANTA – President Donald Trump argued Saturday night why he should be declared the winner of last month’s presidential election while urging his Georgia supporters to re-elect the state’s two Republican senators in next month’s runoffs.

In Valdosta for his first public rally since losing to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump repeated the allegations of voter fraud he has leveled since President-elect Joe Biden was certified the winner four days after the Nov. 3 election.

“This election was rigged,” Trump said. “They found a lot of ballots and they got rid of some, too.”

Trump’s charges that Democrats cheated in Georgia – which Biden carried by a razor-thin margin – have stirred fears among Republican leaders that some GOP loyalists might stay home on Jan. 5 rather than support Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

But Trump said the stakes in the runoff are too high for Georgia Republicans to ignore. Victories by Perdue and Loeffler would keep the Senate in Republican hands, while victories by Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock would turn over the chamber to the Democrats.

“You will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or a free country,” the president said.

Trump went on to paint a dire picture of what would happen if Democrats are allowed to control the White House and both houses of Congress.

America would become a land of open borders for illegal immigration where armed gangs roam free and law-abiding firearms have lost their Second Amendment right to bear arms, he said.

Trump gave Loeffler and Perdue strong endorsements. He said he didn’t know Loeffler before the Atlanta businesswoman was appointed to the Senate late last year to succeed retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson, but has come to admire her.

“There is nobody who fought harder for me,” Trump said.

Perdue, a longtime CEO, was elected to the Senate in 2014 and has been a key Trump ally.

“David’s been my friend for a long time,” the president said. “Nobody in Washington is more respected.”

Trump also reiterated his criticism of Gov. Brian Kemp for not backing his efforts to stop Democrats from stealing the election.

The president called Kemp earlier Saturday and reportedly asked the governor to call a special session of the General Assembly to address his concerns about how the election played out in Georgia. The president also asked for an audit of absentee ballot signatures.

“Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing,” Trump said during the Valdosta rally.

While Kemp has asked the secretary of state’s office for an audit, he pointed out the governor does not have the legal authority to interfere in an election.

Loeffler and Perdue briefly joined Trump on the podium Saturday night.

“We want you to vote on Jan. 5,” Loeffler told the crowd. “If you’re our voice on Jan. 5, we’ll be your voice for years.”

“We’re going to fight and win those two seats and make sure you get a fair and square deal in the state of Georgia,” Perdue added, addressing the president .

Their Democratic opponents, Ossoff and Warnock, pointed in a news release Saturday following a joint rally in Conyers that Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Biden has touched off a damaging divide within Georgia’s Republican Party.

On the other hand, the Democrats are focused on issues that matter to Georgians, Ossoff and Warnock said in the release.

“He and I are going to fight the good fight on behalf of health, jobs, and justice in the great state of Georgia and in the United States,” Warnock said.