Huge Victory for Democrats in Georgia: Warnock Wins, Ossoff Leads In Senate Run-Offs

HEPHZIBAH, GEORGIA - JANUARY 04: Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff speak before an Augusta canvass launch block party at Robert Howard Community Center on January 04, 2021 in Hephzibah, Georgia. On the final day before the January 5th runoff election, Warnock and Ossoff, who are challenging Republican incumbent senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, made their last pitches to voters at a block party and canvass launch. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

What once seemed like a wishful dream is on the cusp of becoming reality for the Democratic Party on Tuesday in Georgia.

The results are not complete down to the last vote. But it seems likely that Democrats will take charge of the U.S. Senate to go with the presidency and the House of Representatives under soon-to-be President Joe Biden, thanks to a political nail-biter in what was once a rock-solid Republican state.

GEORGIA UPDATE:
*Rev. Raphael Warnock is elected, defeating GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
*Jon Ossoff holds a 16,000-vote lead over Sen. David Perdue, but race is still too close to call.https://t.co/6uCE1chedq pic.twitter.com/AhM7uhRzEQ
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) January 6, 2021

“Georgia is a fitting setting for the conclusion of the 2020 elections, as the most closely divided battleground state in the country in November, with Biden defeating Trump by only 12,000 votes to turn the state blue for the first time in decades,” reported Politico.

After an hours-long, see-saw in both runoffs, Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, scored a narrow victory over Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

Ossoff and Sen. David Perdue were essentially tied at 50-50 when vote-counting stopped overnight with 97% counted. It was to resume Wednesday morning, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CNN late on Tuesday.

When vote-counting stopped, Warnock led Loeffler by about 36,000 votes out of 4.4 million cast, or 50.4% to 49.6%. Ossoff’s lead was even closer, about 16,000 votes, a small fraction over 50%.

Warnock claimed victory in an online speech early Wednesday morning and the Washington Post declared him the victor a couple of hours later, noting that “most of the remaining ballots were believed to be from strongly Democratic areas.”

Raphael Warnock will make history when he becomes Georgia's first Black senator and the first Black Democrat to represent a southern state in the Senate https://t.co/krZmz2Q4OH
— CNN (@CNN) January 6, 2021

”Tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible,” Warnock said.

Ossoff will likely face a recount before being confirmed the winner; Georgia law says a candidate — in this case, Perdue — can request one if the margin of victory is less than half a percentage point.

Ossoff and Warnock would give the Senate a 50-50 partisan divide, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris becoming the tiebreaking vote. With that, along with the House and the presidency, Democrats will control everything except the federal judiciary, which Trump spent his entire term packing with conservatives.

To win the runoffs, the Democrats first had to win the voter turnout, and they did — mostly before Tuesday.

Georgia voters responded to the idea that they could decide which party will control the Senate by casting more than 3 million early or absentee ballots. Then, on Tuesday, in some heavily Democratic counties, they turned out in numbers exceeding the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The Black vote was pivotal, and historic, especially for Warnock, now the first Black senator ever elected in Georgia.

Both President Trump and President-elect Biden made get-out-the-vote appearances in Georgia on Monday, and most observers say Trump’s characteristic egomania seriously hurt the GOP cause.

“The final days of the tense contests, which set records for campaign spending and early turnout in Georgia, were dominated by Trump’s continued efforts to subvert the presidential election results,” said the Reuters news agency.

Gabriel Sterling, who works for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, told CNN before the vote that if the Republicans lost, the blame “falls squarely on the shoulders of President Trump.”