President Donald Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud will either help or hurt Republicans effort to retain the US Senate, as the president visits Georgia to drum up support for two GOP re-election campaigns. Some establishment Republicans are sounding alarms that President Donald Trump's conspiratorial denials of his own defeat could threaten the party's ability to win a Senate majority and counter President-elect Joe Biden's administration. The concerns come ahead of Trump's planned Saturday visit to Georgia to campaign alongside Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face strong Democratic challengers in Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine which party controls the Senate at the outset of Biden's presidency. Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump by just over 12,500 votes in Georgia, with Biden receiving nearly twice as many of the record number of absentee ballots as the Republican president, according to the secretary of state's office. Trump, who for months has sowed unsubstantiated doubt about the integrity of mail-in votes, has also made baseless claims of widespread fraud in the presidential race in Georgia. Despite other factors like voter outreach and the millions of dollars being spent in political ads in Georgia, Bill Barrow, an Associated Press National Political Reporter based in Atlanta, believes Trump is still "the single biggest influencer in a race like this." "Early voting and absentee voting is such a major part of the Georgia electorate, particularly in this COVID year. And absentee requests are already going out. Ballots are going out. Early voting starts December 14. So everything sort of coming to a head," Barrow said. "And the big question with Trump on the way now is how much does he help or does he hurt by making this visit more about him, more about these claims that simply are not going to overturn the election results. Or does he use his considerable popularity with the base to channel that energy in a way that helps David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler?" But the crux of their runoff argument — that Republicans must prevent Democrats from controlling Capitol Hill and the White House — is itself an admission that Biden, not Trump, will be inaugurated Jan. 20. "Where that ties to Trump is whether he comes in and acknowledges that even tacitly and tries to tell his base and connect that with him, with his accomplishments, and puts it in Trump terms, which would be, hey, you're not just blocking Joe Biden, you're protecting my legacy. You're protecting what we put in place," Barrow said. And at one recent campaign stop, Perdue heard from vocal Trump supporters who demanded that he do more to help Trump somehow claim Georgia's 16 electoral votes. Republicans see three potential negative outcomes to Trump fanning the flames. Some GOP voters could be dissuaded from voting again if they accept Trump's claims that the system is hopelessly corrupted. Among Republicans more loyal to Trump than to the party, some could skip the runoff altogether out of anger at a party establishment the president continues to assail. Lastly, at the other end of the GOP spectrum are the moderate Republicans who already crossed over to help Biden win Georgia and could be further alienated if the runoff becomes another referendum on Trump. None of the potential bad effects would have to be sweeping to tilt the runoffs if they end up as close as the presidential contest in Georgia. "Bear in mind, this was a presidential race in Georgia that came down to a margin of 12,500 votes between Biden and Trump, so this runoff will also turn on the margins, or at least that's the expectation across the board," Barrow added.