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2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia

The 2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 3, 2020, and on January 5, 2021, to elect the Class II member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue in the runoff election, despite Perdue receiving more votes in the first round. The general election was held concurrently with the 2020 presidential election, as well as with other elections to the Senate, elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Republican primary
Candidates NomineeDavid Perdue, incumbent U.S. senator Withdrawn • James Jackson • Michael Jowers, veteran (ran in the special Class 3 seat). Results ==Democratic primary==
Democratic primary
Candidates NomineeJon Ossoff, investigative journalist, media executive, nominee for Georgia's 6th congressional district in 2017 Eliminated in primaryTeresa Tomlinson, former mayor of Columbus • Sarah Riggs Amico, nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in 2018 • Marckeith DeJesus, candidate for Georgia State Senate in 2017 and candidate for Georgia House of Representatives in 2016 • Maya Dillard-Smith, former two-term Senate Appointee Judge over judicial performance and Rules Committee Chair • James Knox, retired U.S. Air Force officer • Tricia Carpenter McCracken, journalist and nominee for Georgia's 12th congressional district in 2016 (endorsed Ossoff) • Elaine Whigham Williams, pastor and candidate for president in 2016 (endorsed Ossoff)Jason Carter, grandson of former Georgia Governor and President Jimmy Carter, former state senator, and nominee for governor of Georgia in 2014 (endorsed Tomlinson)Stacey Evans, former state representative and candidate for governor of Georgia in 2018 (ran for state house)Scott Holcomb, state representative • Michelle Nunn, nominee for U.S. Senate in 2014 and daughter of former Senator Sam NunnKasim Reed, former mayor of Atlanta • Doug Teper, former state representative Polling Head-to-head polling Endorsements Results Almost four times as many Georgia voters participated in the 2020 Democratic Senate primary as in the 2016 primary, when only 310,053 votes were cast. ==Other candidates==
Other candidates
Libertarian Party Nominee • Shane Hazel, former U.S. Marine, podcaster, and Republican candidate for Georgia's 7th congressional district in 2018 Independents Withdrawn • Elbert "Al" Bartell, perennial candidate (ran as an independent candidate in the special Class 3 seat) • Allen Buckley, Libertarian candidate for 2016 • Tom Jones • Valencia Stovall, Georgian Democratic state representative from District 74 since 2013 (ran as an independent candidate in the special Class 3 seat) ==General election==
General election
Debates The first debate between Hazel, Ossoff, and Perdue occurred virtually on October 12. A second debate between Ossoff and Perdue, held on October 28 in Savannah and aired on television station WTOC-TV, was more heated and made national headlines, with Ossoff saying that Perdue had claimed "COVID-19 was no deadlier than the flu", was "looking after [his] own assets, and... portfolio", and that Perdue voted "four times to end protections for preexisting conditions". Ossoff also called Perdue a "crook" and criticized him for "attacking the health of the people that [he] represent[s]". Perdue said Ossoff will "say and do anything to my friends in Georgia to mislead them about how radical and socialist" his agenda is. Video of the exchange went viral.—"as lovely as another debate listening to Jon Ossoff lie to the people of Georgia sounds", Ossoff criticized Perdue's absence, accusing him of skipping the event because of the negative response to his performance in the October debates. Predictions Post-primary endorsements Polling Graphical summary Aggregate polls with Teresa Tomlinson with Sarah Riggs Amico with Stacey Abrams with Generic Democrat with Generic Republican and Generic Democrat Results district results No candidate received a majority of the vote on November 3, so the top two finishers—incumbent Republican senator David Perdue (49.7%) and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff (47.9%)—advanced to a runoff election held on January 5, 2021. Voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected were allowed to submit corrections until 5pm on November 6. By county By congressional district Perdue won eight of 14 congressional districts in the general election. ==Runoff==
Runoff
The runoff election between Perdue and Ossoff was on January 5, 2021, alongside the special election for the other Senate seat held by Republican Kelly Loeffler, to fill the remainder of Johnny Isakson's unexpired term (which expired in 2023). Loeffler was defeated by Raphael Warnock in that special election. Following the 2020 Senate elections, Republicans held 50 Senate seats and the Democratic caucus 48. Since Democrats won both Georgia runoffs, their caucus gained control of the Senate, as the resultant 50–50 tie is broken by Democratic vice president Kamala Harris. If the Democrats had lost either race, Republicans would have retained control of the Senate. The high political stakes caused the races to attract significant nationwide attention. These elections are the third and fourth Senate runoff elections to be held in Georgia since runoffs were first mandated in 1964, following runoffs in 1992 and 2008. It is also the third time that both of Georgia's Senate seats have been up for election at the same time, following double-barrel elections in 1914 and 1932. The deadline for registration for the runoff election was December 7, 2020. Absentee ballots for the runoff election were sent out beginning on November 18, and in-person voting began on December 14. Ossoff's runoff campaign largely focused around accusing Perdue of corruption as well as aggressively courting Black voters in an attempt to drive up turnout, while Perdue characterised Ossoff as a socialist and accused him of having ties to the People's Republic of China. Perdue's campaign was hampered by his refusal to state that Joe Biden had won that year's presidential election, which made it exceedingly difficult for him to argue that an Ossoff victory would create a Democratic trifecta. As Ossoff and Warnock were both sworn in on January 20, 2021 shortly after the start of the Biden administration, Ossoff became Georgia's senior senator and Democrats simultaneously held both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats for the first time since 2003. Predictions Fundraising Polling Aggregate polls This section also contains pre-runoff polls excluding all candidates except head-to-head matchups. with Generic Republican and Generic Democrat Results {{align|right| Ossoff won Washington and Baldwin counties in the runoff, after having lost them in the general election. By county Counties that flipped from Republican to DemocraticCobb (largest municipality: Marietta) • Gwinnett (largest municipality: Peachtree Corners) Counties that flipped from Democratic to RepublicanBaker (largest municipality: Newton) • Burke (largest municipality: Waynesboro) • Chattahoochee (largest municipality: Cusseta) • Dooly (largest municipality: Vienna) • Twiggs (largest municipality: Jeffersonville) By congressional district Despite losing the statewide runoff, Perdue held onto the eight congressional districts he had previously won in the general election. ==See also==
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