Democrat Warnock wins in Georgia; second runoff and U.S. Senate control undecided

By Nathan Layne and Rich McKay

 

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Raphael Warnock speaks on his campaign's Youtube account after the runoff election against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 6, 2021. Warnock for Georgia/Social Media via REUTERS

 

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock won a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Georgia over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, TV networks and Edison Research projected, but which party will control the chamber was up in the air with a second contest still undecided.

 

Warnock, a Baptist preacher, defeated Loeffler in one of two runoff elections in Georgia that will decide control of the Senate - and whether Republicans will be able to block President-elect Joe Biden's agenda.

 

The race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue was still too close to call.

 

With 98% reporting, Warnock was ahead of Loeffler by a percentage point, roughly 40,000 votes, while Ossoff led Perdue by about 3,560 votes, according to Edison Research.

 

The critical races drew an estimated 4.5 million voters - a record for a runoff - along with nearly half a billion dollars in advertising spending since Nov. 3 and visits on Monday by Republican President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden.

 

Most of the votes remaining to be counted were in counties Biden won in November, with roughly 30,000 to go in DeKalb and Newton counties near Atlanta, according to Edison Research estimates.

 

"We were told that we couldn’t win this election. But tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible," Warnock told supporters in a livestream message before the projection.

 

"I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia, no matter who you cast your vote for in this election."

 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said election officials would take a break overnight but resume counting on Wednesday morning. "Hopefully by noon we'll have a better idea where we are," he said on CNN.

 

Democrats must win both contests to take control of the Senate. A Democratic sweep would create a 50-50 split in the Senate and give Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, the tie-breaking vote after she and Biden take office on Jan. 20. The party already has a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

 

If Republicans hold the second seat, they would effectively wield veto power over Biden's political and judicial appointees as well as many of his legislative initiatives in areas such as economic relief, climate change, healthcare and criminal justice.

 

No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 20 years. The head-to-head runoff elections, a quirk of state law, became necessary when no candidate in either race exceeded 50% of the vote in November.

 

Warnock will become Georgia's first Black U.S. senator and Ossoff, at 33, would be the Senate's youngest member.

 

Perdue is a former Fortune 500 executive who has served one Senate term. Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, was appointed a year ago to fill the seat of a retiring senator.

 

(Reporting by Nathan Layne and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Brad Heath, Michael Martina and Dan Burns; Writing by Will Dunham, Joseph Ax and John Whitesides; Editing by Scott Malone, Soyoung Kim and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-06

 

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First black senator from Georgia.  A state with a terrible history with regards to race relations.

 

First democrat senator in GA since 2005.

 

Ossoff is next.  He's already ahead by more votes than Biden got.

 

Bye bye McConnell.  Great news for America.

Glad the negativity of Loeffler is gone. But for sure she'll challenge and call it rigged.

 

Not surprised.She attached herself to the Trump fantasy world.

where he won the election.

Here's the Georgia U.S. Senate official election results website...which appears to currently have tallies that are somewhat behind those posted above from the Associated Press:

 

https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/107556/web.264614/#/summary

11 minutes ago, stevenl said:

But for sure she'll challenge and call it rigged.

Given what’s happening in Pennsylvania at the moment, I’ve asked here before (but didn’t get an answer) how the Georgia elects would be seated and whether some ... GOPs could also deny them their seats. Does anyone know that? 

The nutters have started.  NO masks, violence, lies and racist comments.  Sad people.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dc-police-make-several-arrests-ahead-major-pro-trump-election-n1252938

Looking better than I had expected. Nice. Another bad day for the soon-to-be ex president.

 

Everything Trump touches is turning to dross - a reverse Midas touch. Perhaps the Republicans will realize tying their fortunes to a con man who hijacked the GOP has led them to irrelevancy. Perhaps.

Trump promised to drain the swamp. Now the Republicans are bogged down in the new one he made.

On 20 January 2017:  (R) White House, (R) Senate, (R) House

 

On 20 January 2021:  (D) White House, (D) Senate, (D) House

 

Never has there been as disastrous a loser as 45.

 

Now The Senate can pass a Bill adding 5 seats to the Supreme Court, and President Biden can pick the judges. Sally Yates will be named Attorney General, and she has plenty of lawbreaking to investigate and prosecute from 45's clan. Obviously the self-pardon won't hold up in court, so 45 can face a myriad of Federal charges. He's already going to face charges in NY State and now Georgia, because of his call on Saturday.

 

Everything is beginning to look good.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock won a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Georgia over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler

In the words of Michael Buble [lol]

 

Hey hey hey
It's a beautiful day and I can't stop myself from smiling
If we're drinking, then I'm buying
And I know there's no denying
It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing
And even if it started raining
You won't hear this boy complaining

 

 Alan Chang / Michael Steven Buble / Gillies Amy Skylark Foster

15 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

 

 

Now The Senate can pass a Bill adding 5 seats to the Supreme Court, and President Biden can pick the judges. Sally Yates will be named Attorney General, and she has plenty of lawbreaking to investigate and prosecute from 45's clan. Obviously the self-pardon won't hold up in court, so 45 can face a myriad of Federal charges. He's already going to face charges in NY State and now Georgia, because of his call on Saturday.

 

Everything is beginning to look good.

I wish. Joe Manchin has already said no way to adding supreme court justices. And there are a few other Democrats I expect would do the same. What really needs to be done is to get rid of the filibuster.

And it's not clear in general that a conviction can be won against Trump. The thing is, most of these charges require that a defendant knowingly violated the law. And Trump can very believably plead ignorance because it's clear that he truly is extremely ignorant.

Mitch's neighbor just reported that he heard him singing in the shower in the middle of the night:

"Don't cry for me, Russia..."

4 minutes ago, placeholder said:

I wish. Joe Manchin has already said no way to adding supreme court justices. And there are a few other Democrats I expect would do the same. What really needs to be done is to get rid of the filibuster.

And it's not clear in general that a conviction can be won against Trump. The thing is, most of these charges require that a defendant knowingly violated the law. And Trump can very believably plead ignorance because it's clear that he truly is extremely ignorant.

 

45s also got the insanity defense in the bag. He could get virtually the entire mental health community to appear as expert witnesses.

Just to give an idea of the alternative, or rather , opposite universe many Trump supporters live in: The Gateway Pundit said that ballot counting in a Democratic County in Georgia was stopped for the night just as Republicans pulled ahead.

I hope the GOP politicians start to understand that they lost because of Trump. 

Now they will have some time to think about if they should continue to support that loser.

5 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I hope the GOP politicians start to understand that they lost because of Trump. 

Now they will have some time to think about if they should continue to support that loser.

I just don't get it, I would have thought they are rational human beings. Trump's modus operandi is shouting everyone down, lying like a pig in s##t, and demeaning everyone who disagrees with him on the smallest detail. His legal challenges are farcical. Why do they keep supporting someone who has lost them so much? The answer is fear, unless they man up they will be in the political wilderness for decades to come.

Great news.

 

Thank you Stacey Abrams.

On 1/6/2021 at 6:15 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

I hope the GOP politicians start to understand that they lost because of Trump. 

Now they will have some time to think about if they should continue to support that loser.

This guy realised it early but seemed to have forgotten about it. Maybe this election disaster will remind him????

 

An Old Lindsey Graham Tweet About Trump Comes Back To Haunt Them Both

 

 

49 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I just don't get it, I would have thought they are rational human beings

Where did you get that idea from?

9 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Where did you get that idea from?

Good point, maybe I lean too much towards optimism about humans.

55 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I just don't get it, I would have thought they are rational human beings. Trump's modus operandi is shouting everyone down, lying like a pig in s##t, and demeaning everyone who disagrees with him on the smallest detail. His legal challenges are farcical. Why do they keep supporting someone who has lost them so much? The answer is fear, unless they man up they will be in the political wilderness for decades to come.

Because they don't trust each other and are unable to hold a common position. It looks like a classical game theory case. They know that if they don't support Trump, someone else will. They prefer to minimize regrets rather than try to maximize returns.

4 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

First black senator from Georgia.  A state with a terrible history with regards to race relations.

 

First democrat senator in GA since 2005.

 

Ossoff is next.  He's already ahead by more votes than Biden got.

 

Bye bye McConnell.  Great news for America.

Best to wait until the fat lady has sung the aria.

 

Next there will be Trump and the Republicans with floods of Twitters literally screaming for recounts and alleging voter fraud yet again.

This is good news for America the Biden administration needs all the help we can give to get the ship of state back on course after the disasterious trump administration and don’t panic we still have all the checks and balances in place to keep us from going to far in any one direction,but imo we can now start evolving towards a more green, balanced,middle class friendly country 2021 is starting to get better!!

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

I just don't get it, I would have thought they are rational human beings. Trump's modus operandi is shouting everyone down, lying like a pig in s##t, and demeaning everyone who disagrees with him on the smallest detail. His legal challenges are farcical. Why do they keep supporting someone who has lost them so much? The answer is fear, unless they man up they will be in the political wilderness for decades to come.

quote " lying like a pig in s##t".

 

Unfair to pigs and hope that none were hurt by your comment. ????

Looks like it is decided now. Both of the GOP candidates were highly compromised, and appeared to be quite corrupt, with their use of insider information for stock trades. And when Trump got involved, that was the nail in the coffin. Warnock is the first black senator elected in the history of Georgia, and by all accounts, seems like a man of decency. We could sure use a few more of those in DC. 

 

Trump is again spreading discord, and now he blew it for these senators. The election was so close, it is likely both GOP candidates would have won, had Trump kept out of it. Who needs a booster like that?

 

Other than a lack of involvement from the military, the allegations of election fraud, appear to be the equivalent of an attempted take over, or a coup. They did not like the results, and the fact that the American people chose Biden by 7 million votes. All of that toxic spewing of hatred, name calling, fake info, and nastiness resulted in a resounding defeat. Yet? No, it was a fake result. No, it was rigged. The American people love me. The world loves me. How could I lose? Face it Don. You lost 17 businesses. You lost 19 merchandising deals. You lost a major trade war with China. Xi kicked your butt. You lost the negotiations with NK. You cannot negotiate your way out of a paper bag. A sensible person would assume you are accustomed to losing by now. 
 
Chances are, it was the GOP that attempted to rig the election, and yet the margin was still great enough for Biden to win. The GOP has a long and rich history of disqualifying votes by people of color. Calling you a bitter man, a harbinger of discord and misery, and a sore loser would be an understatement. Now you lost the election for the two remaining members of the house. Hopefully the dems will load up the court. I would like to see 15 justices. 

 

See ya! Bye bye! Pack your bags. You will not be missed.
 

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Looks like it is decided now. Both of the GOP candidates were highly compromised, and appeared to be quite corrupt, with their use of insider information for stock trades.

I thought GOP supporters think politicians are smart if they do such things.

Please stay on topic, which is the Ga election. This is nto the place to re-hash issues about the presidential election.

4 hours ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

Given what’s happening in Pennsylvania at the moment, I’ve asked here before (but didn’t get an answer) how the Georgia elects would be seated and whether some ... GOPs could also deny them their seats. Does anyone know that? 

No. They can't.