Republican Sen. David Perdue dropped his fight over the results of the Georgia Senate runoff on Friday, conceding to Democratic Sen.-elect Jon Ossoff.
“Although we won the general election, we came up just short of Georgia’s 50% rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win,” he wrote in a statement.
After polls closed on Tuesday, Ossoff won 50.5% of the vote to Perdue’s 49.5%. Ossoff’s 1 percentage-point margin of victory precluded the first-term senator from asking for a recount.
Perdue’s loss follows a general election win. During the Nov. 3 round of voting, Perdue notched 49.7% of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.9%. Perdue falling short of earning majority support triggered this week’s runoff.
Perdue’s defeat, along with Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s in the parallel Jan. 5 Georgia runoff against Democratic Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock, flips Senate control. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has the power to cast votes breaking a 50-50 tie.
Perdue’s concession comes after two days of insisting he would challenge Ossoff’s lead. The pair’s race was marred by personal and political attacks, though Perdue spent the closing days in quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus.
“We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted,” Perdue’s campaign said in a statement earlier this week. “We believe in the end, Sen. Perdue will be victorious.”
