Democrat Jon Ossoff declared victory over Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue in a Wednesday morning speech to supporters in Atlanta, calling for unity to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. No major news outlet has projected a win for the Democrat yet.
“It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate”, Ossoff said.
Media outlets projected a win for Georgia’s other Senate runoff race for Democrat Raphael Warnock last night, meaning that if Ossoff’s win becomes official, Democrats will begin President-elect Biden’s administration with control of both the House and Senate.
Ossoff currently leads Perdue by about 16,000 votes.
Perdue has not conceded the race. In a statement released last night, the campaign said they believed Perdue would still be victorious in the end.
– Nicholas Wu
Warnock wins Georgia race, Ossoff ahead
Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate with Raphael Warnock the projected winner over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff leading Republican Sen. David Perdue in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections.
Around 2 a.m. ET Wednesday, the Associated Press projected Warnock the winner over Loeffler after the Atlanta pastor built his statewide lead to more than 46,500 votes.
Warnock made history with his election win, becoming the first Black Democrat elected as a U.S. senator from a state in the South and only the 11th Black senator in the history of the nation. He becomes the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 20 years.
“To everyone out there struggling today, whether you voted for me or not, know this,” Warnock said as he declared victory in a video from his home. “I hear you, I see you, and every day I’m in the United States Senate, I will fight for you. I will fight for your family.”
Trailing much of the night, Ossoff surged ahead of Perdue by more than 8,500 votes after batches of votes from Democrat-heavy DeKalb County were released. Most uncounted votes remain in Democratic strongholds in the metro Atlanta area.
“When all the votes are counted we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate,” Ossoff campaign manager Ellen Foster said in a statement. “The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon’s performance has been dominant.”
The Perdue campaign was not ready to concede.
In a statement, the Perdue campaign said the race — as they expected – is “an exceptionally close election that will require time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate and the voices of Georgians are heard.
“We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia voting system implementation manager, said he expects most ballots to be counted by Wednesday but for final counts not until Friday.
Warnock’s victory gives Democrats 49 seats in the Senate, one shy of creating a 50-50 tie with Republicans, which would effectively give Democrats control because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote. A win for Ossoff would give Democrats their coveted 50th seat.
The possible Senate sweep in Georgia would give Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 2004 and boost President-elect Joe Biden’s ability to carry out his early legislative agenda. In November, Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes, becoming the first Democrat to carry the state for president since 1992.
Tuesday’s election was a rare double run-off. Ossoff and Warnock ran against Perdue and Loeffler in the Nov. 3 general election, but no candidate in that race passed the 50% threshold under state law to win the Senate seats outright, forcing Tuesday’s runoffs.
Although Loeffler and Perdue topped their Democratic opponents in votes during the Nov. 3 election, the two Democrats benefited Tuesday from higher turnout in heavily Democratic counties in the Atlanta area. In several cases, they outperformed Biden’s margins of victory in these counties.
Leading up to the election, President Donald Trump leveled a barrage of unfounded allegations about his election loss in Georgia. With Trump calling his election outcome rigged, some Republicans feared it might discourage their voters to turnout in the runoff elections. Trump was in Georgia to campaign for the Republican candidates as recently as Monday night.
Georgia election officials said turnout Tuesday shattered the previous record for a run-off in the state, including more than 3 million who voted early. Nearly $500 million was spent on campaign ads since Nov. 4, indicative of the significance both parties and special interests placed on the race.
Following the playbook that helped Republicans retain control of the Senate after the general election, Loeffler and Perdue attacked their opponents as “radical socialists” and said the fate of nation was at stake with the race.
Ossoff and Warnock slammed Loeffler and Perdue for being part of a Republican-controlled Senate that for months refused to pass additional federal coronavirus relief.
Biden campaigned for Ossoff and Warnock just a day before the election, arguing in the last throes of the election that their win would benefit residents in the form of $2,000 direct relief checks to help deal with COVID-19’s economic impact.
How many voting machines, flipped the votes to the D party??? This smells like the mini version of Nov. 3.
So, again the left progressives are doing another criminal steal or are people just that stupid.
Warlock, is such a racist! Just because he’s “black” makes it ok!
What hypocrisy! The next four years will be devastating to this country and the real Americans! So instead of watching endless Hollywood babble, maybe Americans should wake up and learn history. We are going to become a socialistic communist country with no rights and poverty.
Georgians will soon see that the money Biden bribed them with to get their vote will turn to dust in the mouths of their children. Democrats will increase the burden on our children by spending above their ability to pay with current taxes. Instead of a government by and for the American people, we will enter a time when the American people will all work only to pay the master or die. Our children will never know the freedom we have enjoyed. They will be forced to go to war in foreign lands for the sake of cruel leaders. Never see democrats as friends of the people because they are only in this for power and profit.
As opposed to Trump, who did such a good job of bringing down our national debt, just as he promised?
Both piglosi & turtle boy are a POS!!! piglosi with all the PORK in the stimulus packages for other countries, the kennedy center, the museums & the raise for all congress members new the package of over $3 trillion would not pass. Plus she would not let anything pass for political purposes, way to care about THE SUFFERING AMERICAN PEOPLE. turtle boy & the republiCANTS are a bunch of traitors & cowards, they didn’t care about all the money going to other countries. How many paychecks have any of these useless POS politicians missed, THE ANSWER IS NONE!!! Heh piglosi, how is the re-decorating going that antifa did for you!!! turtle boy better watch his back, a lot of SUFFERING, ANGRY AMERICAN PEOPLE out there!!!
Insanity or is it stupidity is when you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
With Georgia using mail in ballots and Dominion voting machines the same way as in November, it has to be stupidity or corruption.
IT SEAMS TO ME THAT THESE REMARKS HAVE BEN EXOERMINTLY VERIFIED.!
COMUNISAM AND TOTAL CONTROL OF PEOPLE HAS NEVER WORKED IN ANY COUNTRY
THIS IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY OR HARD RULES FOR THE INDIVIDULES MAKING DECISIONS
WE ARE ABOUT TO EXPERANTLY PROVE YHAT DEMOCRICY AND LAWS DOES NOT WORK
THIS IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITYOR HARD RULES THAT HAVE TO BE ENFORCED
SUGEST A SYSTEN THAT TREATS EVERYONE THE SAME SENCE EVERY ONE IS THE SAME JUDGING COMITTIES WILL BE SELECTED AT RANDOM WITH MEMBERS OF DIFRENT JOB AND EDUCATION LEVELSNOT ASSOCATED WITH
ANY OFICAL OR GOVERNING-POLECING OR MILITARY TIES LIMITED TI ONE TIME IN THEIR LIFE TO REVEW ALL INDIVIDULES AS TO THEIR SUTIBILITY FOR EXZISTANCE AND THEIR CONTRUBUTAIONS TO THE BETTERMENT OF EVERY ONE IN THE COUNTRY
THE RULES WILL BE WRETEN DOWN IN A BOOK OF RULES AND PENALTIES FOR BREAKING THE RULES WITH AT LEAST THREE PENALTIES TO BE CHOSEN FROM NO LAWS NO JUDGES NO LONG TERM PRISONS NO POLITICAL PARTY JUST COMITTIE GOING BY THE RULES SIMULAR TO THE FCC FOR THE BETTERMENT OF EVERY ONE