Jon Ossoff, a candidate for Georgia’s Democratic Senate, is eager to get his rematch against incumbent GOP Senator David Perdue on Jan. 5. Although Perdue won more votes than he did in the November election, came less than half a point short of an outright victory over Ossoff, the Georgian Democrat thinks the outcome could be different down the drain.
The general election was split: Democrat Joe Biden eventually won the state, but Republicans across Georgia and in the two Senate races got the most votes. The Republican competing in the other race, Senator Kelly Loeffler, got fewer votes than the leading Democrat, Reverend Raphael Warnock, but she competed in a field of 20, and the third-highest vote catcher was GOP Representative Doug Collins, who 20 won. % of the votes.
In an interview with CBS News Wednesday, Ossoff predicted that he won fewer votes than Joe Biden, while Perdue won more votes than President Trump, that a more focused head-to-head competition would be different.
Ossoff noted, “I have received more votes in the history of this state than any Georgia Democrat operating statewide,” pointing out that “Georgia has become younger and more diverse every year for the past decade. “
Among the voters the Democrats want to target are the “tens of thousands of people who became eligible to vote because they turned 18 between November and January,” Ossoff said. “We are continuing to build momentum to have a record turnout. We generated record turnout in November; we will do it again in January.”
While turnout in a Senate round is usually dramatically lower because there is no presidential race at the ballot box, the pair of Georgian run-offs are poised to be different as the two seats will decide who will control the Senate when Mr Biden takes office. Voters and politicians, including Ossoff, see this race as a joint ticket with Warnock.
“What is happening in Georgia right now is extraordinary, and people would not have believed it a decade ago – that you have the young Jewish son of an immigrant, accompanied by Congressman John Lewis, who walks next to a black minister who Dr. “King’s pulpit in the Ebenezer Church as the flag bearers in these two Senate competitions to control the Senate running in the most competitive state in the country,” said Ossoff.
Ossoff always mentions Warnock in his speech, emphasizing the fact that Warnock is the pastor of the church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. He calls Warnock “the moral voice for our state and our country.”
“We walk very well together and travel together across the state,” he said. “We met yesterday with President-elect Biden. We are meeting in Savannah on Saturday and it will be an extraordinary statement if, as one of the two state senators of Georgia, we elect the senior pastor of Ebenezer Church. ”
CBS News has asked all candidates for interviews. Loeffler and Perdue have not responded to our requests.
Kathryn Wienner and Kelly Johnstone contributed to this report.