Could the U.S. Senate and Presidential Races in Georgia Come Down to Batteries?

SK Innovation, an energy company based in South Korea, has been investing heavily in Georgia to construct facilities to produce electric vehicle batteries in Commerce, Georgia. Overall, they have anticipated spending $2.6 billion and creating 2,600 jobs by 2024. The batteries produced are to be used in several vehicles made by automobile manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Hyundai-Kia Motor, and Ford Motor Company.

All of this is at risk, though, due to ongoing legal actions brought about by LG Chem against SK Innovation. LG Chem has filed lawsuits with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and in the US Federal District Court for the State of Delaware. The claim is that SK Innovation has used trade secrets stolen from LG Chem in the manufacturing of its batteries.

The ITC is set to make a ruling on October 26 between the two battery manufacturers, though it has already indicated previously that it is in support of LG Chem’s request for sanctions against SK Innovation.

President Donald Trump has the ability to veto the probable ruling against SK Innovation made by the ITC, if he chooses to do so. A decision to allow the ruling to stand could mean a tremendous loss of SK Innovation’s investment in Georgia, though. The ripples from that could be felt in Georgia (and beyond) on election day on November 3 in the Presidential race and the two United States Senate races.

United States Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and U.S. Representative Doug Collins, who is the Congressman for Commerce, all have stakes in the November 3 election. A New York Times poll shows a 43% tie between Jon Ossoff and Sen. Perdue and a 45%-41% advantage for Rev. Rapheal Warnock over either Rep. Collins or Sen. Loeffler in a runoff. Since they have all sought to be tied closely with President Trump, his decision to intervene or not in this case could swing votes in these elections, especially in the runoff for the seat occupied by Sen. Loeffler.