ATLANTA — Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff claimed victory Wednesday morning in his battle with incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, hours after Rev. Raphael Warnock was declared the winner in his race against Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
Should Ossoff be proved correct, the Georgia results would hand the Democrats a stunning sweep of the Peach State, control of the Senate, and hand President-elect Joe Biden a golden opportunity to push through his legislative agenda. Although the makeup of the upper chamber of Congress would be 50-50, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would act as a tiebreaker.
“It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate. Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me,” Ossoff said via a livestream as results continued to trickle in.
Ossoff’s remarks precede the Associated Press calling his race. At 9:30 a.m. ET, the filmmaker, 33, was ahead of the sitting senator, 50.2% to 49.8% support, a razor-thin 16,000-odd vote lead with 98% of precincts reporting.
Campaigns can request a recount in Georgia when the margin of victory is less than 0.5 of a percentage point, and Perdue, a former businessman, has indicated her will fight to keep his seat, vowing to use “every available resource” and “exhaust every legal recourse.”
“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,” a campaign spokesperson said. “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, the voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said Wednesday that he believed as the final votes trickle in, Ossoff would in fact increase his lead to the extent that he could avoid a recount.
Early Wednesday morning, Ossoff’s Democratic colleague, political novice Warnock, was named the winner of his contest against appointed Republican Sen. Loeffler. Loeffler has yet to concede in the special election for the remaining two years of retired GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.
“We were told that we couldn’t win this election. But tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible. May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold to the American dream,” Warnock said via livestream moments before the Associated Press and major networks declared him the winner.
The Senate race results come as Congress meets to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory and with it the drama of Republicans planning to challenge the elector slates of multiple contested battleground states where President Trump has alleged widespread voter fraud.
As president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence will preside over Wednesday’s joint session of Congress, and all eyes will be on the former governor of Indiana.
Pence has been under pressure from his boss, as well those within his party, to aid the long-shot challenge to the election.
“I hope that our great vice president comes through for us. He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him as much,” Trump said at a rally on Monday night for the Georgia candidates. “Mike is a great guy. He’s a wonderful man and a smart man and a man that I like a lot.”
Trump also took to Twitter on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to intimate, without proof, that the Georgia results had fallen victim to voter fraud.
“They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night,” he tweeted Wednesday. “The USA is embarrassed by fools. Our Election Process is worse than that of third world countries!”
