Polls in the Georgia Senate’s hotly contested run-off races closed Tuesday night, with early vote counts giving Democratic challengers an initial lead that has since faded.
With 80 percent of the vote counted at 10 p.m., GOP Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) Was ahead of Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff by more than 68,000 votes to 51 percent to 49 percent.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) Was also ahead of the Democratic Rev. Raphael Warnock with nearly 53,000 votes, or 50.6 percent-49.4 percent.
The nation’s eyes are on the Peach State for the two races that will determine which party runs the senate and whether incoming president-elect Joe Biden will get a congressional check against his leftist agenda.
Ossoff, a 33-year-old investigative reporter, and Warnock, a senior pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, moved forward as votes progressed on Tuesday night, but there are still many ballots to be drawn.
The majority of votes counted so far have come from early and post-in-vote in which Democrats always perform better, with higher Republican turnout on election day.
Much of the remaining votes are from GOP strongholds in northern Georgia, meaning Loeffler and Perdue could wipe out Ossoff and Warnock’s gains late Tuesday night and get the Republican stronghold in the upper chamber of Congress. preserve.
The high stakes race smashed multiple fundraising and attendance records.
More than 3 million people cast their votes early – or about 40 percent of registered voters in the state – while hundreds of thousands of other Georgians were expected to appear on Wednesday.
Given the massive turnout and sheer number of post-in ballots, which cannot be counted until the polls close at 7pm, the races cannot be held for days in a repeat of the painful presidential election.
The outcome of the two Peach State races will determine the political direction of the United States for years to come and whether Biden will be able to push through tax increases, the Green New Deal and another ObamaCare revamp, among other leftist initiatives. to press.
At an election night rally in Dalton, Georgia, President Trump pleaded with Georgians to vote and warned they would be at the mercy of Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) , who would become majority leader under democratic control of the senate.
“The people of Georgia will be at the mercy of the left-wing socialists, communists, Marxists, and that’s where it goes. You know we don’t like to use the word communist, ”he said.