Democrats Jon Ossoff, left, and Raphael Warnock exchange elbow bumps during a campaign rally in Augusta, Ga., on Monday. (Michael Holahan/The Augusta Chronicle via AP)
ATLANTA (CN) Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff has won his Georgia runoff contest against Republican Senator David Perdue, giving President-elect Joe Biden’s party control of the chamber.
Ossoff won 50.28% of the vote compared to Perdue’s 49.72%, putting him just beyond the threshold that would have allowed Perdue to request a recount. Georgia law allows a losing candidate to request a recount if the final margin is 0.5 percentage points or less.
In the other runoff election, Democrat Raphael Warnock secured a win against Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. Warnock will make history as Georgia’s first Black senator. He holds a 1.4-point lead over Loeffler, also putting him beyond the threshold for a recount.
WHY AP DECLARED OSSOFF THE WINNER
Ossoff held a lead of about 25,000 votes, or about 0.56 percentage points, over Republican David Perdue out of about 4.4 million cast when the AP called the race at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday.
The call was made after an analysis of outstanding ballots showed there was no way for Perdue, who was seeking a second term, to overtake Ossoff’s lead.
Tens of thousands of outstanding votes remain to be counted, but the vast majority were in six Democratic-leaning counties that Ossoff was winning.
Many of the ballots left to be counted were mail votes, a form of voting that overwhelmingly favored Ossoff. The remaining votes left to be counted in Republican-leaning areas that favored Perdue were not enough for him to catch up.
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