Georgians had a unique task in Tuesday’s election: Theirs was the only state in the country voting to fill two U.S. Senate seats. With the Republicans defending those two seats and 21 other seats nationally, the GOP had a lot on the line going into Election Day. The outcome in Georgia leaves the party more vulnerable than it would like.
Incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue has bested Democrat Jon Ossoff, but he failed to do so with a majority of the vote. That means Perdue will have to try again in a runoff election against Ossoff in January.
For Republicans, news of Perdue’s runoff wouldn’t be as unwelcome if his fellow Georgia senator, Republican Kelly Loeffler, hadn’t already been handed a similar fate. Loeffler, in a multicandidate race, failed to win and will face Democrat Raphael Warnock in another January runoff.
Loeffler has been very supportive of President Trump. FiveThirtyEight calculates her “Trump score,” or how often she votes in line with Trump’s position, at 100%. Though less evidently true in Loeffler’s case — she ran against 19 other candidates, one of whom is a Republican congressman who received some 20% of the votes — Perdue’s shortfall is evidence that kinship with Trump was not compelling for enough Georgians.
Perdue was dubbed Trump’s “favorite senator” by Business Insider. The two have been close allies and have a very similar resume. Both excelled in business, a shared past to which Perdue has pointed, and for both of them, their current office is their first. Perdue, in Trumpish fashion, had some infantile fun with Kamala Harris’s name at a campaign rally in October. It’s difficult to say if these are the reasons why Perdue failed to beat Ossoff, but they didn’t do enough for him in the end.
The GOP faced a real threat of losing its Senate majority on Tuesday, having to defend 11 more seats than Democrats. Republicans took an early hit with Cory Gardner’s loss in Colorado, but they gained a seat in Alabama. They lost a seat in Arizona, and they weren’t able to gain one in Michigan.
Republicans did hold on to seats in Kentucky, Iowa, Montana, Maine, and Nebraska, among others. The jury is still out on North Carolina. It’s not even clear yet who Georgia chose for president, but too few voters chose Perdue and Loeffler in order to ensure a Republican Senate majority. The party has some more work to do.
