GA Senate Runoff Certified By Secretary Of State's Office
GEORGIA — The Georgia Secretary of State's Office certified Tuesday the results for the Jan. 5 Senate runoff. The certified results of state and federal races can be found on the Secretary of State's website.
"In certifying the results, the Secretary of State affirmed that all 159 counties have provided to the state the total votes tabulated for each state and federal candidate," the department said in a press release. "Further, the Secretary of State affirms that the statewide consolidated returns for state and federal offices are a true and correct tabulation of the certified returns received by this office from each county."
The certification confirms that Democrats Jon Ossoff won in his Senate race against incumbent Republican David Perdue, and Raphael Warnock won in his U.S. Senate race against incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
This ends the months-long campaign for Georgia's Senate seats, which ended in a runoff in November. These races will determine which political party controls the U.S. Senate, which has national implications for coronavirus response, stimulus packages, the Supreme Court and other issues.
Gabriel Sterling, the voting implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's office, said that the actions of President Donald Trump since the presidential election in November 2020 — including the leaking of an audio recording from a phone call between Trump and Raffensperger — as well as Perdue and Loeffler calling for Raffensperger's resignation following the November election, may have cost the two incumbents this election.
About 6 in 10 Georgia voters said that control of the Senate was the single most important factor in their choice, an Associated Press survey said. However, Republican backers were more likely to prioritize holding a Senate majority than Democratic supporters.
Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said after he won that he was humbled by the faith Georgians have placed in him and promised to work for all of Georgia in Washington, D.C.
"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 said. "Georgia, I am honored by the faith that you have shown in me. I promise you this tonight: I am going to the Senate to work for all for Georgia."
Warnock had a message for Georgians, whether they voted for him or not.
"I hear you, I see you, and every day I'm in the United States Senate I will fight for you, I will fight for your family," he said.
Warnock spoke to 11Alive and said he called his mother Tuesday night to tell her the news. He will be the first Black senator from Georgia and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South.
"We made history together, and I'm so very proud of our state," Warnock said. "When I think about the long arc of our history, the struggle to build what Dr. [Martin Luther King Jr.] called the beloved community, I think about people close to me, I think about my own mother. She's 82 years old, and grew up in Waycross, Georgia. As a Black teenager in the 1950s, she spent many days picking somebody else's cotton, while the other days she got to help her youngest son to become a U.S. senator."
Warnock said he is proud of Georgia for sending him, and Ossoff — who hadn't been declared the winner as of Wednesday morning — to the U.S. Senate. He said he hopes to focus on issues facing many Americans, because they are "issues of right and wrong, not necessarily right and left."
"Georgia is sending the two of us at the moment we're seeing the emergence of forces that are trying to stir up the old forms of bigotry and racism that divide us. The election itself is a kind of message, and I'm grateful the people of Georgia would put their trust in me, someone who was born and raised in public housing. I hope to bring the concerns of struggling families and ordinary people to the United States Senate."
Ossoff released a video shortly before being declared the winner.
"Whether you voted for me or against me, I'll be for you in the U.S. Senate, I will serve all people in this state," he said. "I will give everything I've got to ensuring that Georgia's interests are represented in the U.S. senate. Georgia, thank you so much for the confidence you placed in me. I am honored by your support, by your confidence and by your trust. I look forward to serving in the U.S. Senate with integrity, with humility, with honor and getting things done for the people of Georgia."
This story includes reporting from the Associated Press, and Patch Editors Kathleen Sturgeon and Kara McIntyre
This article originally appeared on the Roswell Patch
