Democrats win one Georgia runoff and lead in second, moving closer to US Senate control
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
August 14, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 2022
Democrats win one Georgia runoff and lead in second, moving closer to US Senate control

US Election 2020

Reuters
06 January, 2021, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 06 January, 2021, 02:53 pm

Related News

  • Russian gains in Ukraine's east indicate a shift in momentum in the war
  • Taylor Fritz stuns Nadal to lift Indian Wells trophy
  • Japan PM Kishida, strengthened by election win, lays out broad policy plans
  • US Senate Democrat unveils 'billionaires tax' for Biden agenda
  • US judge rules DACA program illegal, suspends new applications

Democrats win one Georgia runoff and lead in second, moving closer to US Senate control

Democrats must win both contests to take control of the Senate

Reuters
06 January, 2021, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 06 January, 2021, 02:53 pm
Photo: AP
Photo: AP

Democrats won one hotly contested US Senate race in Georgia on Wednesday and pulled ahead in a second, edging closer to control of the chamber and the power to advance Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's policy goals when he takes office this month.

Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, TV networks and Edison Research projected. Democrat Jon Ossoff held a narrow lead over Republican David Perdue in the other race, with a final outcome not expected until later on Wednesday.

With 98% reporting, Warnock was ahead of Loeffler by 1.2 percentage points, roughly 50,000 votes, while Ossoff led Perdue by more than 12,000 votes, according to Edison Research.

Democrats must win both contests to take control of the Senate. A Democratic sweep would create a 50-50 split in the Senate and give Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, the tie-breaking vote after she and Biden take office on Jan. 20. The party already has a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives.

If Republicans hold the second seat, they will effectively wield veto power over Biden's political and judicial appointees as well as many of his legislative initiatives in areas such as economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, healthcare and criminal justice.

Most of the votes remaining to be counted were in counties Biden won in November, with roughly 13,000 votes still to be counted in Democratic-leaning DeKalb County near Atlanta, according to Edison Research estimates, fueling Democratic optimism about an astounding Georgia sweep. No Democrat had won a US Senate race in Georgia in 20 years.

"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, a Baptist preacher, told supporters in a livestream message before he was projected the winner.

"I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia, no matter who you cast your vote for in this election."

Warnock will become Georgia's first Black US senator and Ossoff, at 33, would be the Senate's youngest member if he wins.

The critical races drew an estimated 4.5 million voters - a record for a runoff - along with nearly half a billion dollars in advertising spending since Nov. 3 and visits on Monday by Republican President Donald Trump and Biden.

Even if they manage to secure a slim Senate majority, Biden and Democrats could find it difficult to advance some legislative priorities in the Senate, where most bills need to clear a 60-vote procedural threshold in the 100-seat chamber.

The head-to-head runoff elections in Georgia, a quirk of state law, became necessary when no candidate in either race drew more than 50% of the vote in November's general election.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said election officials would take a break overnight but resume counting on Wednesday morning. "Hopefully by noon we'll have a better idea where we are," he said on CNN.

Perdue is a former Fortune 500 executive who has served one Senate term. Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, was appointed a year ago to fill the seat of a retiring senator.

Democratic optimism 

Biden's narrow statewide win over Trump in the Nov. 3 election - the first victory for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992 - gave the party reason for optimism in a state dominated by Republicans for decades.

In Smyrna, about 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Atlanta, Terry Deuel said he voted Republican to ensure a check on Democratic power.

"The Democrats are going to raise taxes," the 58-year-old handyman said. "And Biden wants to give everyone free money - $2,000 each or something like that for COVID stimulus? Where are we going to get the money?"

Ann Henderson, 46, cast ballots at the same location for Ossoff and Warnock, saying she wanted to break Washington's gridlock by delivering the Senate to Democrats.

"It's the social issues - civil rights, racial equality, voting rights, pandemic response," she said. "If we take it, maybe we can get something done for a change."

US equity market index futures were broadly weaker as the results turned in favor of the Democrats, signaling stocks could open on the soft side on Wednesday morning. The benchmark S&P 500 e-mini futures contract was down 0.6%, while futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq were off by 1.3%.

Ttump pressured Georgia officials 

The campaign's final days were overshadowed by Trump's efforts to subvert the presidential election results.

On Saturday, Trump pressured Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on a phone call to "find" enough votes to reverse Biden's victory, falsely claiming massive fraud.

Trump's bid to undo his loss - with some Republicans planning to object to the certification of Biden's win when Congress meets on Wednesday to formally count the presidential vote - have split his party and drawn condemnation from critics who accuse him of undermining democracy.

At a rally in Georgia on Monday night, Trump again declared the November vote "rigged," an assertion some Republicans worried would dissuade his supporters from voting on Tuesday.

His attacks appear to have undermined public confidence in the electoral system. Edison's exit poll found more than seven in 10 were very or somewhat confident their votes would be counted accurately, down from 85% who said the same in a Nov. 3 exit poll.

Reporting by Nathan Layne and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Brad Heath, Michael Martina and Dan Burns; Writing by Will Dunham, Joseph Ax and John Whitesides; Editing by Soyoung Kim, Scott Malone and Howard Goller

Top News / World+Biz

Raphael Warnock / Georgia runoff election / Win / Democrat / senate control

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • ADB pledges $9.46 billion for next three years
    ADB pledges $9.46 billion for next three years
  • Sought info on 67 Bangladeshis from Swiss banks, got only one: BFIU tells HC
    Sought info on 67 Bangladeshis from Swiss banks, got only one: BFIU tells HC
  • Excess liquidity Tk2 lakh cr again but banks have little in hand
    Excess liquidity Tk2 lakh cr again but banks have little in hand

MOST VIEWED

  • The supermarket deal, valued at around 6.8-billion pounds ($8.8-billion), follows an auction process for Asda over several months and returns the 71-year-old supermarket company back into British ownership after 21 years, a development welcomed by UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak. PHOTO: COLLECTED
    UK watchdog to rule on $9.5 billion Asda takeover by April 20
  • REUTERS/Carlos Barria
    Georgia prosecutors launch criminal probe into Trump efforts to influence election
  • Photo: Reuters
    Coca-Cola expects sales growth as vaccines set to allow venues to reopen
  • People line up to cast their ballots shortly after sunrise during early voting session in Celebration, Florida, US, October 25, 2020. REUTERS/Gregg Newton
    Stolen election? Republican lawmakers paralyzed by Trump's false fraud claims
  • Picture: Collected
    6 migrant workers dead after falling into pit in India's Meghalaya forest
  • FILE PHOTO: Razor wire is seen on a fence around the U.S. Capitol ahead of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
    Empty streets, thousands of troops in Washington as Biden becomes US president

Related News

  • Russian gains in Ukraine's east indicate a shift in momentum in the war
  • Taylor Fritz stuns Nadal to lift Indian Wells trophy
  • Japan PM Kishida, strengthened by election win, lays out broad policy plans
  • US Senate Democrat unveils 'billionaires tax' for Biden agenda
  • US judge rules DACA program illegal, suspends new applications

Features

Infigraphic: TBS

The dollar crunch chronicles

3h | Panorama
The proposed playground for disabled people has long been left to grow bushes on the premises of the National Parliament Building in the city. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Whatever happened to the ‘promised land’ for the disabled?

1h | Panorama
Sketch: TBS

India’s 75th anniversary is one to forget

57m | Panorama
Toes and talons of Shikra. Photo; Enam Ul Haque

Shikra: A leopard with wings!

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

This train will run on carbon dioxide

This train will run on carbon dioxide

1h | Videos
Students will evaluate the teachers

Students will evaluate the teachers

1h | Videos
Qatar World Cup will start a day earlier

Qatar World Cup will start a day earlier

1h | Videos
Eggs are selling at record prices

Eggs are selling at record prices

15h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

3
Representational Image. Photo: Collected
Bangladesh

Air passengers should plan extra commute time to airport: DMP

4
Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 
Crime

Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 

5
File Photo: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid
Energy

All factories to remain closed once a week under rationing system

6
Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard. Photo: Courtesy
Bangladesh

Bangladesh never asked for particular info from Swiss bank: Ambassador

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]