One of the Georgia Republican Senate candidates is conceding.
In a short video message, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler told her supporters Thursday she had called Democratic Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock to congratulate him on his win. But she hinted she would stay involved in politics.
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“The fight to advance the American dream is far from over,” Loeffler said. “The fight to protect conservative values is far from over. And the fight against socialism and the radical agenda of the Left is very far from over.”
Serving our great state has been the honor of my lifetime.
Thank you, Georgia! pic.twitter.com/MQc0rFS208
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) January 7, 2021
But Sen. David Perdue, her Republican colleague, hasn’t made the same move in his race against Democratic filmmaker Jon Ossoff.
After polls for Tuesday’s twin runoffs closed, Warnock notched 50.9% of the vote to Loeffler’s 49.1%. Perdue’s 49.5% support to Ossoff’s 49.5% was also outside the 0.5% margin needed to request a recount.
Loeffler’s concession comes after she refused to accept defeat early Wednesday morning.
“We have a path to victory, and we are going to stay on it,” she said at the time.
Later Wednesday, the senator appointed last January returned to Washington, D.C., with the intention of blocking the certification of Georgia’s 2020 election results, but decided against it after Trump supporters stormed the United States Congress.
Perdue insisted Thursday that he would contest the outcome of Tuesday’s historic runoffs. His and Loeffler’s losses lead to Senate Democrats taking control of the chamber.
“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. “We believe in the end, Sen. Perdue will be victorious.”
Loeffler’s time in the Senate will come to about a year. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to fill the final two years of the Senate term won by GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson in 2016. Isakson resigned from the Senate at the end of 2019, citing health reasons.
