Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff earned the most votes in his party’s Senate primary, avoiding an Aug. 11 runoff election.
Ossoff, 33, was one of seven Democrats vying for the right to challenge GOP first-term incumbent Sen. David Perdue. The documentary filmmaker was the favorite going into Tuesday’s primary based on polling and fundraising, but it was unclear whether he’d scoop up the majority of support from main rivals former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico.
Ossoff had 50.7% of the vote as of Wednesday night, according to the Associated Press. Results trickled in slowly after widespread reports of hourlong lines, missing ballots, and glitchy equipment bought as part of a $104 million investment following a 2018 voter access fight.
Ossoff failed to flip Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in his expensive 2017 runoff special election against Republican Karen Handel. Voters chose Handel to replace then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, but her slim margin of victory gave Democrats hope that they could play in the traditionally red state. The GOP eventually lost the district representing Atlanta’s suburbs in the 2018 midterms.
Georgia’s other Senate seat will also be hotly contested on Nov. 3. If no hopeful clinches a majority of the vote to succeed appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a result that’s widely expected, a run-off election will be held on Jan. 5.
Loeffler’s campaign has been marred by allegations she and her New York Stock Exchange chairman husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, made favorable trades after she received a closed-door briefing warning of the COVID-19 outbreak in January. The Justice Department, last month, dropped its investigation into the insider trading accusations, but she’s unlikely to make up the ground she’s ceded to Republican Rep. Doug Collins and the Democrats competing in the so-called jungle primary.
Democrats believe they can seize both seats in the fall, given Georgia’s emerging importance to the White House race between President Trump and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The GOP currently holds 53 seats in the Senate to Democrats’ 45, plus two independents. Two extra seats could help Democrats claw back control of the chamber, in addition to their majority in the House.
