GA Senate Races: Ossoff Wins, Democrats To Control U.S. Senate

Updated 4:24 p.m. on Wednesday

GEORGIA — Democrats will gain control of the U.S. Senate — and a top Georgia election official said the blame for two Republican losses, if confirmed, rests squarely with President Donald Trump. The Associated Press called Democrat Jon Ossoff the winner of his Senate race against Republican Davide Perdue.

President-elect Joe Biden Tweeted Wednesday afternoon called Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to "congratulate them on their hard-fought campaigns."

"Georgia voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face, and they want it right now," Biden said. "Together, we'll get it done."

Warnock was declared the winner in his U.S. Senate race against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler. The Associated Press called the race at 2 a.m. Wednesday, not long after Warnock gave a victory speech.

At 4:16 p.m. Wednesday, Ossoff was called the winner in his race.

At 2 p.m. Wednesday with 100 percent of votes counted statewide, the unofficial results showed 49.8 percent of the vote for Perdue, with Ossoff now claiming 50.2 percent. In the other Senate race, Warnock has 50.62 percent of the vote to Loeffler's 49.38 percent.

There is no evidence of irregularities in the runoff election as counties wrap up their counts, Gabriel Sterling, the voting implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's Office, said in a media briefing Wednesday morning. Any problems stem from the “president’s fertile mind of fraud where none exists. ... We’ve seen nothing that seems real in any way, shape or form.”

When reporters asked Sterling, a Republican, who is to blame should Democrats capture both Georgia Senate seats, he replied, "President Donald J. Trump." The president's unfounded claims of election fraud undermine democracy and the country, he added.

Larger counties were still counting absentee ballots Wednesday morning and working toward a 1 p.m. deadline. Here were some of the ballots to be counted as of 10 a.m.:

• DeKalb: 17,902
• Cobb: 5,896
• Chatham: 5,318
• Fulton: 5,294
• Gwinnett: 5,068
• Fayette: 1,139

Most, but not all, of the counties were expected to make the 1 p.m. deadline. Others were working hard to make it, Sterling said.

“These folks are all tired, they’ve had a long day and a long week and a long year,” he said.

Ossoff released a video at 8 a.m. Wednesday that sounded like a victory speech, although no winner had been declared at that point.

"Whether you voted for me or against me, I'll be for you in the U.S. Senate, I will serve all people in this state," he said. "I will give everything I've got to ensuring that Georgia's interests are represented in the U.S. senate. Georgia, thank you so much for the confidence you placed in me. I am honored by your support, by your confidence and by your trust. I look forward to serving in the U.S. Senate with integrity, with humility, with honor and getting things done for the people of Georgia."

Warnock spoke to 11Alive Wednesday morning, and said he called his mother Tuesday night to tell her the news. He will be the first Black senator from Georgia and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South.

"We made history together, and I'm so very proud of our state," Warnock said. "When I think about the long arc of our history, the struggle to build what Dr. [Martin Luther King Jr.] called the beloved community, I think about people close to me, I think about my own mother. She's 82 years old, and grew up in Waycross, Georgia. As a Black teenager in the 1950s, she spent many days picking somebody else's cotton, while the other days she got to help her youngest son to become a U.S. senator."

Warnock said he is proud of Georgia for sending him, and Ossoff — who hadn't been declared the winner as of Wednesday morning — to the U.S. Senate. He said he hopes to focus on issues facing many Americans, because they are "issues of right and wrong, not necessarily right and left."

"Georgia is sending the two of us at the moment we're seeing the emergence of forces that are trying to stir up the old forms of bigotry and racism that divide us. The election itself is a kind of message, and I'm grateful the people of Georgia would put their trust in me, someone who was born and raised in public housing. I hope to bring the concerns of struggling families and ordinary people to the United States Senate."

Related:

• Electoral College Count Naming Biden Winner Set Against Unrest
• GA Senate Election: Warnock Wins, Ossoff Upbeat, Count Goes On

Loeffler had not conceded the race Wednesday morning.

Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said he was humbled by the faith Georgians have placed in him and promised to work for all of Georgia in Washington, D.C.

"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 said. "Georgia, I am honored by the faith that you have shown in me. I promise you this tonight: I am going to the Senate to work for all for Georgia."

(See real-time results from the Georgia Secretary of State's office at the bottom of this story.)

Return to Patch for the latest vote tally. Subscribe to free News Alerts for election results.

DeKalb County elections officials told Fox 5 Atlanta that due to technical issues, 19,000 remaining ballots must be manually scanned to be tabulated and added to the total vote count. Ballots are currently being scanned.

Warnock had a message for Georgians, whether they voted for him or not.

"I hear you, I see you, and every day I'm in the United States Senate I will fight for you, I will fight for your family," he said.

Ossoff campaign manager Ellen Foster released a statement at 1:25 a.m. Wednesday.

"When all the votes are counted, we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon's performance has been dominant," the statement said. "We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the U.S. Senate."

Election officials hope to complete the vote count by noon Wednesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

"It's very close," Raffensperger said late Tuesday. He noted that about 17,000 military and overseas ballots must arrive at county election offices by 5 p.m. Friday to be counted.

He expects that the total votes cast in the state for the runoffs will reach 4.5 million. "It's a very strong turnout. ... It really shows you we're a very competitive state. Both parties had a big turnout."

About 6 in 10 Georgia voters said that control of the Senate was the single most important factor in their choice, an Associated Press survey said. However, Republican backers were more likely to prioritize holding a Senate majority than Democratic supporters.

Both parties spent millions of dollars to turn out voters. One Democratic canvassing group that knocked on doors to get voters to the polls targeted Asian American and Pacific Islanders in Johns Creek.

"A lot of people think that Jan. 5 is the day to get out and vote, but really it's the last day to get out and vote," Bedansh Pandey, a 16-year-old canvasser, told Patch. "It's the final stretch, and we want to make sure that we finish strong. The polls have been good for Democrats so far, but we want to keep it that way."

Avi Dhyani, a 15-year-old canvasser, said this election is not just one vote — this vote will determine the next two years in this country's government.

"This vote is going to dictate for the next two years if we're going to have a government for the people, or a government that works to stall the people's agenda," Dhyani said. "We, as Americans, have to fix this. This is the greatest economy and country in the world, so we really need to give back to the people."

Polling had showed both races virtually deadlocked. A Fox 5/Insider Advantage poll released on Monday put both Ossoff vs. Perdue and Warnock vs. Loeffler tied at 49 percent for each candidate, according to Real Clear Politics.

Political leaders and pundits said the fallout from Saturday's phone call by President Donald Trump — as he urged Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the Nov. 3 results — could keep Republicans from voting. Both Trump and President-elect Joe Biden campaigned in the state Monday in a last push to get their party's Senate candidates elected.

Republicans need to win just one of the two seats on the ballot to keep control of the Senate. Democrats need to win both for a 50-50 split that would make Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will preside over the Senate, the tie-breaking vote.

Biden mentioned the ongoing stimulus check debate between Trump and Congress, saying Ossoff and Warnock would "put an end to the block in Washington" and help get $2,000 stimulus checks approved rather than the $600 payments in the works.

Under Georgia law, if the margin separating the candidates is within 0.5 percent, the losing candidate has the right to ask for a recount. That would be done by running the ballots through the scanners again.

This story includes reporting from the Associated Press, and Patch Editors Kathleen Sturgeon and Kara McIntyre