Jon Ossoff’s Georgia Senate bid goes to a January runoff election

Jon Ossoff, the Jewish Georgia Democrat running for US senator, on Friday got another chance to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue in a runoff that could prove crucial to Democrats’ diminished hopes of taking control of the Senate.

Neither nominee in Tuesday’s election met the 50% threshold that under Georgia law would have won him the election outright. The runoff election will take place on Jan. 5. The most recent count on Friday has Perdue at 49.8% and Ossoff at 47.8%. A Libertarian candidate in the race held the rest of the votes.

The race until now was marred by accusations of bigotry against Perdue’s campaign, including an ad that digitally manipulated Ossoff’s nose to make it look longer. Ossoff raised the ad, which Perdue had taken down, in a contentious debate.

Also headed for a Georgia runoff is a separate special election for the Senate, pitting incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican business owner whom Georgia’s governor named to the seat earlier this year after a longtime senator retired because of illness, against Raphael Warnock, a Black Atlanta pastor. Warnock is the spiritual leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, which Martin Luther King Jr. helped helm until his 1968 assassination.

Georgia’s Democrats are energized by the likely surprise win in their state of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who appears headed to the presidency. Wins by Ossoff and Warnock, coupled with a decision in favor of the Biden-Kamala Harris ticket, would hand the Senate to Democratic control, and both races are set to attract a lot of attention and a lot of money.

Georgia said Friday it will recount votes from the election in which Biden has eked out a razor-thin lead over President Donald Trump.

“With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters in Atlanta.

Raffensperger, the top elected official overseeing elections, said that the presidential contest in the state “remains too close to call.”

Almost complete results as of Friday morning showed Biden leading by just over 1,500 votes in Georgia, where changing demographics and strong turnout from African-Americans have put in play a Southern state once seen as reliably backing Trump’s Republicans.

Should Biden win the presidency and the Democrats win the two Senate seats, Biden would be dealing with a majority in the Senate, increasing his chances for passing legislation and securing major appointment confirmations. Otherwise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, could wield the power to block Biden.

Other races in North Carolina and Alaska also hold the potential to reshape the balance of power, but Georgia offers the more likely prospect. Nationally, the Senate stands at 48-48.

The fierce advertising campaign in the state highlights Georgia’s newfound position as a top political battleground.

Ads in the race between Perdue, 70, and Ossoff, 33, have at times been downright nasty, and even potentially anti-Semitic.

In July, Perdue’s campaign was forced to take down a digital ad featuring a manipulated picture of Ossoff, who is Jewish, with an enlarged nose.

Ossoff called it “the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history.” Perdue’s campaign said the senator has a record of “standing firmly against anti-Semitism” and said the ad was an “unintentional error” by an outside vendor.

Sitting U.S. Senator David Perdue's digital attack ad distorted my face to enlarge and extend my nose.

I'm Jewish.

This is the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history.

Senator, literally no one believes your excuses.https://t.co/PiA7P4O4M2

— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) July 28, 2020

In his ads, Ossoff has sought to use Perdue’s own words to highlight the senator’s close relationship to Trump, amid growing dissatisfaction with the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Perdue has been one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in the Senate, though his own ads were completely devoid of any connection to the president.

In Georgia, two runoff elections would mean a campaign on an almost national scale, with tens of millions of dollars spent by both sides.

Biden has been mum on the Senate balance as he awaits the results in his own election, but he offered a preview days before Tuesday’s election.

“I can’t tell you how important it is that we flip the United States Senate. There’s no state more consequential than Georgia in that fight,” Biden declared at an Atlanta rally on Oct. 27, when he campaigned alongside Ossoff and Warnock.

Both sides promised unlimited funds would flow to the campaigns and onto the airwaves, and they predicted an all-star cast of campaigners for a state that in recent weeks drew visits from Biden, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama.