O VOO DO CORVO

 

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/05/us/loeffler-ossoff-warnock-perdue

 

Races remain too close to call in Georgia.

 

With control of the Senate hanging in the balance, two runoff contests in Georgia remained too close to call early Wednesday as the advantage seesawed back and forth after election officials had tallied more than 4.2 million votes.

 

The races feature two Republican candidates — Senator Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, whose Senate term ended on Sunday — trying to fend off their Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, in contests that have drawn national attention and unprecedented levels of campaign spending.

 

Democrats saw some significant signs for optimism. Both Senate candidates were winning a larger share of the vote in county after county than President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. won in November, when he narrowly carried the state.

 

Mr. Warnock was running slightly stronger in his race against Ms. Loeffler than Mr. Ossoff was in his contest with Mr. Perdue. After a large tranche of votes in DeKalb County were reported after 11 p.m., many Democrats began to cautiously cheer the possibility of victory.

 

“With new votes joining the tally, we are on a strong path,” wrote Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist and former candidate for Georgia, on Twitter.

 

About 95 percent of voters in both runoff races said that determining control of the Senate was a “major factor” in their vote, according to A.P. voter surveys, with about three in five calling it “the single most important factor.”

 

Mr. Biden and President Trump both campaigned in the state on Monday, a sign of the high stakes of the races. If either Republican candidate wins, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, will remain the majority leader. But if both Democrats win on Tuesday, the party will gain control of the chamber, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaking vote.

 

“This could be the most important vote you will ever cast for the rest of your life,” Mr. Trump said at his rally on Monday. The races are the final elections during his presidency, and Mr. Trump, as usual, loomed large.

 

A majority of voters, 56 percent, said they disapproved of how Mr. Trump has handled the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost but has sought to overturn and undermine. At the same time, voters approved of how Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, whom Mr. Trump has sparred with, has handled the situation.

 

Mr. Biden narrowly carried Georgia in November, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so since 1992.

 

But he did not pull ahead of Mr. Trump in the vote counting in Georgia until days after the election. If the Senate races remain tight on Tuesday, the counting — and a final result — would drag later into the week, as it did in the general election in November.

 

Mr. Biden’s victory in Georgia has lifted the party’s hopes before the runoffs. But Democrats did not fare as well down ballot in November. Mr. Perdue far outpaced Mr. Ossoff by nearly 90,000 votes in their first matchup, suggesting that Democrats still have to make up ground to win the runoff.

 

The racial makeup of the final electorate will be crucial in a state where Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrats and white voters back Republicans. According to data compiled by georgiavotes.com, Black voters made up a larger share of early voters for the runoff — nearly 31 percent — than they did in the general election, when it was closer to 28 percent.

 

Mr. Warnock, who is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is seeking to become the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South. He and Mr. Ossoff, a 33-year-old documentary film executive, ran in tandem throughout the runoffs.

 

Mr. Perdue, the former chief executive of Dollar General, and Ms. Loeffler, who was appointed to the Senate a year ago and is seeking a full term, have cast the race as a necessary check on Democratic power in Washington in 2021, though these efforts have been complicated by Mr. Trump’s continued insistence, without evidence, that he won re-election.

 

— Shane Goldmacher

As vote counting continues, Warnock pledges to fight for all Georgians.

 

With a narrow lead in his critical Senate race, the Rev. Raphael Warnock promised Georgia voters early Wednesday that he would work on their behalf in the Senate, even though the race had not been officially called in his favor.

 

“We were told that we couldn’t win this election,” said Mr. Warnock, who was leading the Republican incumbent, Kelly Loeffler, by roughly 35,000 votes with about 97 percent of the ballots already counted. “But tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”

 

Mr. Warnock, the pastor at the storied Ebenezer Baptist Church, declared that he “was going to the Senate” to work for all Georgians, though the race has not been decided.

 

During brief remarks, he  recalled his family’s roots in Georgia, noting that he had grown up in Savannah’s housing projects and graduated from Morehouse College. He spoke of his parents, including his mother, who he said “used to pick somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.

 

“But the other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States Senator,” he said.

 

If he ultimately wins his race, Mr. Warnock would become the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South.

 

“May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold of the American dream.”

 

“Georgia,” he added, “I am honored by the faith that you have shown in me.”

 

Speaking around the same time, Ms. Loeffler thanked her supporters and said: “We’re going to win this election.” Still, she acknowledged that the contest was “a game of inches” and that there was still “work to do.” 

Mr. Warnock’s race is occurring alongside another tight Senate contest that has yet to be called. That race, between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, as of early Wednesday was a virtual tie.

 

If Democrats manage to win both races, they will take control of the Senate, clearing the way to more easily enact President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda.

 

— Matt Stevens