Georgia’s two runoff elections were too close to call after midnight, leaving it unclear whether Democrats or Republicans will run the U.S. Senate.
Results continued to come in from around the state, following campaigns that drew massive spending and worldwide attention because the runoffs are determining the balance of power in Washington.
With 97% of the expected vote total reported, Republican Sen. David Perdue was leading Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff by just 0.03 percentage point, according to data aggregated by the Associated Press. In the other runoff, Democrat Raphael Warnock was ahead of GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler by 0.81 percentage point.
Analysts have described the Georgia contests as “about as close as you can get,” and there have been expectations of a long wait before winners are declared.
Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, said the races were not likely to be called on Tuesday night.
“Depends how close it is, but most likely it’ll probably be [Wednesday] morning. It really depends how many absentee ballots,” Raffensperger said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday. He said in a late-night CNN interview that he hoped for a better idea of where the races would be by noon Wednesday.
See: Georgia voters head to polls in pivotal runoffs — but it may be a long wait until winners are known
Also read: In Georgia’s Chatham County, voters march to the polls on Election Day
Betting markets and polls on Tuesday afternoon were signaling some confidence in the Democratic candidates’ prospects.
“Democrats are favored to win the two Georgia Senate races at the moment,” said Eurasia Group analyst Jon Lieber in a note late Tuesday. “It is looking like the Democratic campaign machine was more effective at driving turnout than the Republican one,” he said.
Warnock delivered video-streamed remarks after midnight that contained some hallmarks of a victory speech. Loeffler also spoke, insisting she still had a path to victory.
Though Ossoff was still trailing Perdue early Wednesday, his campaign manager said in a statement that “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.”
Republicans already control 50 seats following November’s elections and can remain the majority party in the 100-seat Senate by winning just one of the two Georgia races. They then would provide a check on policies backed by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and the Democratic-run House of Representatives.
Democrats need to triumph in both Georgia contests to take charge of the Senate. They would have control because a Democratic vice president, Kamala Harris, would cast tie-breaking votes.
Polling stations closed at 7 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday after Georgians flocked to them to cast their ballots, though all voting didn’t stop in the state at that time. A court order, for example, extended voting for about half an hour at two polling locations in Chatham County, according to local news reports.
An AP survey of voters in Georgia’s runoffs found that about three-quarters of supporters of the state’s incumbent Republican senators said President-elect Joe Biden was not legitimately elected in November.
The runoff elections in Georgia have the potential to inject volatility into the stock market SPX, +0.71%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.55% closed modestly higher Tuesday, after suffering its biggest drop since late October on Monday.
Stock futures ES00, -0.31% YM00, +0.03% were slipping early Wednesday.
Now read: The fate of value stocks rests on the Georgia Senate races, JPMorgan strategists say
Add Comment