Warnock, a pastor who for the past 15 years has led the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler defeated. It was a sharp rebuke from outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his last office visits to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican who fled to the other seat, David Perdue.
The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. The candidates were in a tight race and it was too early to name a winner. Under Georgian law, a lagging candidate may request a recount if the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage point.
If Ossoff wins, the Democrats will have full control of Congress, bolstering President-elect Joe Biden’s position as he prepares to take office on January 20.
Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a striking shift in Georgian politics as the growing number of diverse, university-educated voters increase their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to hold the state since 1992.
Warnock, 51, acknowledged his unlikely victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience of poverty. His mother, he said, as a teenager “picked someone else’s cotton.”
“Recently, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands plucking someone else’s cotton chose her youngest son to become a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight we have proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side that anything is possible.”
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The Associated Press declared Warnock the winner after an analysis of the outstanding votes showed that Loeffler was unable to catch up on his lead. Warnock’s lead is likely to increase as more ballots are counted, many of which were in democratic-leaning areas.
Loeffler declined to give in to supporters in a short message shortly after midnight.
“We have some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We are going to win these elections,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago. by the governor of the state.
Loeffler, who will remain a senator in Georgia until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators who plan to challenge Congressional vote to confirm Biden’s victory.
“We’ll keep fighting for you,” said Loeffler, “this is about protecting the American dream.”
The other second election in Georgia targeted Perdue, a 71-year-old former businessman who held his seat in the Senate until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressman and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff is said to be the youngest member of the Senate.
Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the second election, which was held only because no candidate reached the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state election chief on the eve of the election, raising the expectation that some votes may not be counted even if votes are cast on Tuesday afternoon.
Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.
SEE ALSO: What You Need to Know About the Second Round Senate Elections in Georgia
This week’s election marks the formal finale of the turbulent 2020 election season, more than two months after the rest of the country finished voting. The unusually high stakes turned Georgia, once a solid Republican state, into one of the country’s main battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’s presidency – and probably beyond.
Both matches tested whether the political coalition that sparked Biden’s November victory was an anomaly against Trump or part of a new electoral landscape. To win Tuesday’s – and future – elections, the Democrats needed strong African American backing.
Building on his popularity with black voters, among others, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes with about 12,000 of the 5 million votes cast in November.
Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, while worthless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false claim that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the second election.
Election officials across the country, including Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as former Trump Attorney General William Barr, have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all of Trump’s and his allies’ legal challenges have been dismissed by judges, including two thrown by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.
Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls due to the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 voters in Georgia say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.
Even before Tuesday, Georgia had smashed its second-round voter turnout record with over 3 million votes by mail or in December’s personal primaries. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ended up voting in the second round than in the 2016 presidential election in Georgia.
In the Buckhead ward, Atlanta, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new to her.
“I’ve always been a Republican, but I was quite disgusted with Trump and the way Republicans work,” she said. “I feel like the Republican candidates are still standing there with Trump and campaigning with Trump feels pretty shitty. These are not the conservative values I grew up with.”
But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP”.
He said he was concerned about the recent support of the Republican candidates for Trump’s challenges in the presidential election in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”
“I believe in power relations, and I really don’t want both parties to hold a referendum,” he said.
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Peoples reported from New York. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Writers Haleluya Hadero, Angie Wang, Sophia Tulp, Ben Nadler, and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2021 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.