Georgia Runoff Elections to Determine Control of Senate - Live Results and Analysis - WSJ.com
Georgia's Voters Have Given Democrats Control of the US Senate!
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Democrats Flip a Senate Seat
Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in a Georgia Senate runoff. The other race remained too close to call. The Senate runoff elections in Georgia capped a high-profile and costly fight that left hanging the question of which party will control the chamber as well as the scope of President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda.
State of Play in Georgia After AP Calls One Race for Democrats
By Aaron Zitner
We're past 2:30 a.m. Georgia time with the growing prospect that control of the U.S. Senate won't be known tonight. Here's where the state's two Senate runoff races stand:
Democrats have won one of the two runoffs on the ballot. At about 2 a.m., the Associated Press declared Democrat Raphael Warnock the winner over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
Mr. Warnock led by just over 40,000 votes.
That left control of the Senate hanging on the results from the second Senate runoff. Democratic wins in both races would create a 50-50 Senate, giving Democrats control, as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would break tied votes.
Thanks to late tallies posted by DeKalb County, in the Atlanta metro area, Democrat Jon Ossoff slipped past Republican Sen. David Perdue in the second Senate runoff in the early-morning hours. But the Associated Press said it's too early to call the race. As of 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Mr. Ossoff had a lead of 9,527 votes out of nearly 4.4 million counted, or a margin of less than 0.2 percentage points, the AP said.
Under state law, either candidate can request a recount if the final margin is with 0.5 percentage points.
"As we've said repeatedly over the last several weeks and as recently as this evening, this 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," Mr. Perdue's campaign said in a statement shortly after 2 a.m. "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."
Mr. Ossoff's campaign predicted victory. "The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon's performance has been dominant," said Ellen Foster, Mr. Ossoff's campaign manager, in a statement.
DeKalb County may release more results in the overnight hours, but officials said the counting has stopped for now in another large county, Fulton County.
Raphael Warnock (D) Wins Georgia Senate Race
Warnock Defeats Loeffler in Georgia Runoff, Bringing Democrats Closer to Senate Control
By Joshua Jamerson, Cameron McWhirter and Valerie Bauerlein
Democrat Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s former church in Atlanta, defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a hotly contested runoff election, making him the first Black American to represent Georgia in the Senate and the first Democrat to do so since 2005.
The Associated Press declared Mr. Warnock the winner, while another Senate runoff race in Georgia between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff remained too close to call. Democrats need to win both races to take control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since Republicans gained power in 2015.
In an address to the public early Wednesday, Mr. Warnock promised: "I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia."
While the fate of the balance of power in the Senate now rests on the Perdue-Ossoff result, Democrats achieved one significant accomplishment: They've demonstrated that President-elect Joe Biden's narrow win over President Trump in Georgia in November wasn't a fluke and that Georgia will become a battleground state in future elections.
AP Calls Race for Warnock Over Loeffler
By Chad Day
Democrat Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia Senate runoff elections, according to the Associated Press.
AP made the race call at 2:01 a.m. Eastern time as Mr. Warnock held nearly a 1 percentage point lead over Ms. Loeffler. The race between Republican Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff remains too close to call.
5 hours ago
Ossoff Campaign Sees Incomplete Results Pointing to Victory
By Joshua Jamerson
As both races remain too close to call, the campaign of Democrat Jon Ossoff expressed confidence that he will win his race against Republican Sen. David Perdue.
"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," the campaign said in a statement. "The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon's performance has been dominant. We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the U.S. Senate."
Mr. Perdue's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Oh Happy Day! Mitch McConnell Is Going Away...
I hope Warnock and Ossoff plan on calling Donald Trump to thank him. Now Perdue and Meth Barbie can go back to their full time jobs of insider trading.
I expect the gop in Congress will put on quite a shit show making fools of themselves, again.
Today should be interesting. I read Trump's Tweets and he is now full blown nutters. How can all those Senators and Members of Congress support that?
The phrase ‘birds of a feather’ comes to mind.
I would probably say something more harsh...
They are playing to the Trump base so as not to get primaried in the next election.
Right out of Bunker Boys playbook.
A Jew and a black elected to represent Georiga in the U.S. Senate how sweet it is.
Kind of gives you a warm feeling inside. Doesn't it?
I was stationed in Georiga in 1959 and being the wrong color person I saw and felt first hand the racism that existed. We were refused entry into the USO club in Columbus GA. That is something that I will never forget. Water fountains, bathroom et al were all segerated.
Yeah, it's as sweet as sweet can be.
Not many of us are left who remember segregation. My hometown town was slow to integrate. It was probably 1965-66 before you could have even swam in the public pool or eaten in a restaurant. They would not even let nonwhites try on shoes before buying them out of a backdoor in the alley. Minority workers had to have a white man cash pay checks because they were not allowed into the bank. To hear some tell it those were "The Good Olde Days"...
Now the real work of the people can start....
Happy Days Are Here Again!
There are bound to be recounts and lawsuits again, but hopefully justice in the form of victory will prevail. Biden will have enough roadblocks that Trump is deliberately throwing in his path to navigate, and he doesn't need the McConnell Senate's obstruction as well.
In addition, Georgia officials, despite being Republicans themselves, are standing up and supporting their state's election results, like professionals.