Warnock Makes History, Ossoff Leads In High-Stakes Senates Races

Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.

A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.

The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. The candidates were locked in a tight race and it was too early to call a winner. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.

Georgia smashed its turnout record for a runoff even before most polls closed at 7 p.m. on Election Day, with more than 3 million votes cast by mail or during early in-person voting in December.

"Both sides are very highly energized," University of Virginia Center for Politics analyst J. Miles Coleman said.

The high stakes of the contests that will decide the balance of power in the Senate weighed heavily on Georgia voters — six in 10 said control of the upper chamber was the "most important" factor in their vote, according to an Associated Press VoteCast survey.

Republicans only needed to win one of the two seats to keep control of the Senate, while Democrats needed both.

The Senate has 50 Republicans, 46 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats. The Democrats would balance the scales at 50-50 if they won both Georgia seats. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could then cast tie-breaking votes down the road.

If Republicans keep control of the Senate, it could be a "tremendous roadblock" in passing everything from Biden's Cabinet picks to his legislative agenda, Coleman said.

That significance wasn't lost on either Biden or President Trump.

"I need their votes in the Senate," Biden said of the Democrats in an interview Tuesday on Atlanta's WVEE-FM.

Trump told supporters in Georgia Monday that "this could be the most important vote you will ever cast." But even as he encouraged turnout, some worried his claims of fraud and attempts to overturn the presidential election results — particularly in Georgia, which Biden won by roughly 12,000 votes — would discourage voters.

Gabriel Sterling, a top Georgia election official, told CNN in his "personal opinion" that "it will fall squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions" since Nov. 3 if the Republicans lose.

The Senate runoffs were triggered after no candidate reached 50% of the vote in the November election. Perdue led Ossoff in their first matchup, while Warnock led Loeffler.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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