Former Senator David Perdue (R-GA) acknowledged defeat Friday in the Georgia run-off race against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, the election’s projected winner.
In a statement Friday, Perdue described serving as Georgia’s senator since 2015 as the “honor of a lifetime,” and said he was grateful for the support Georgians showed to him over the years. “I am very proud of how our team in Georgia and Washington, D.C. fought everyday to deliver real results for all eleven million Georgians,” said Perdue.
“Although we won the general election, we came up short of Georgia’s 50% rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win,” added Perdue. “Bonnie and I will continue to pray for our wonderful state and our great country. May God continue to bless Georgia and the United States of America.”
DecisionDeskHQ, a prominent election’s tracker, shows Ossoff with 50.5% of the vote and defeating Perdue by 1% of the vote. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who was running in a separate senate race on the same ballot, lost to Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock by nearly 2% of the vote, shows the DecisionDeskHQ election’s tracker.
Loeffler said Thursday that she had called Warnock and wished him “well in serving this great state.”
“While my heart breaks at not being able to continue to serve Georgia and America, I’m tremendously proud of all we’ve achieved together, and I owe so much to my incredible team that became like family to me, both in my campaign, and in my official office. It’s been an honor to serve together,” she said.
Serving our great state has been the honor of my lifetime.
Thank you, Georgia! pic.twitter.com/MQc0rFS208
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) January 7, 2021
An analysis of the race, written by The Daily Wire’s Ian Haworth, attributes the losses to lower Republican turnout and higher Democratic turnout.
In the counties of Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, and DeKalb — the counties which surround Atlanta — Warnock outperformed his November margins. In Fulton, he increased his margin by 2%. In Gwinnett, 4%. In Cobb, 2.4%. In DeKalb, 2.5%. In the top 35 most populous counties that Loeffler won, she underperformed her November margins, in some cases by multiple percentage points.
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The same is true of the closer race between Ossoff and Perdue. In Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb, Ossoff outperformed his November margins. Indeed, in every county that Ossoff won, he outperformed his November margins, and even flipped two counties (Baldwin and Washington). Perdue, on the other hand, consistently underperformed in multiple counties. Given that Perdue only received 1.8% more than Ossoff in the November election, it’s easy to see how Ossoff achieved his victory.
With both Georgia senators having been defeated, Democrats will now command a slim majority in the House, an effective majority in the Senate — where Vice President-elect Kamala Harris can serve as a tie-breaking vote — and hold control of the White House.