On Wednesday, Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate qualifiers. Early in the morning, the second dispute between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff was still close to happening. Yahoo Finance reporter Jessica Smith details the latest news from the nation’s capital.
Video transcription
MYLES UDLAND: Let’s see what’s going on in Georgia right now. Jessica Smith of Yahoo Finance joins us now from Washington, DC with the latest, Jess, on what we know when we prepare for the trading session.
JESSICA SMITH: Yes. We are still waiting for some results from Georgia this morning. But with Raphael Warnock’s victory, Democrats are getting closer and closer to controlling the Senate.
A race is still very close to being called. This is the race between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue. The remaining vote appears to come from predominantly Democratic counties. And Ossoff is now leading by about 16,000 votes.
He’s confident. In a new video released this morning, he has already thanked Georgia for sending it to the Senate. Let’s watch.
JON OSSOFF: This campaign has been about health, jobs and justice for people in this state, for all people in this state. And they will be my guiding principles while I serve this state in the US Senate.
JESSICA SMITH: Senator Chuck Schumer also declared victory a little earlier here, saying it is a new day, celebrating a Democrat-controlled Senate.
But the Purdue team still has hopes. In a statement, he asked for time and transparency. He went on to say: “We will mobilize all available resources and exhaust all legal resources to ensure that all legally issued ballots are properly counted. We believe that in the end Senator Perdue will be victorious.”
The Associated Press has now called for another race in Georgia. This is Raphael Warnock against Kelly Loeffler. Warnock defeated Loeffler by more than 53,000 votes. And he is set to become Georgia’s first black senator. Here’s what he had to say during the night, when it became clear that he won.
RAPHAEL WARNOCK: We were told that we could not win this election. But tonight we prove that with hope, hard work and with the people at our side, anything is possible.
JESSICA SMITH: Now, Loeffler hasn’t suffered yet. She said yesterday that there is still work to be done. She returned to DC today to oppose President-elect Biden’s victory certification.
But if Ossoff maintains his leadership today, it means that Democrats will control the Senate because of the tiebreaker vote that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have. Thus, Biden would enter the White House with a Democratic Congress, just as President Obama did, but Biden’s majorities would be very, very narrow. Myles.
MYLES UDLAND: Well, Jess, it’s 13 days, if my math is right, away from the president – the next president being sworn in, the next Congress being seated. Presumably, it looks like Purdue and Loeffler are going to explore their legal options.
But is there any chance that this will extend beyond January 19th? What is the exact timetable here in terms of resolving this? Because as you mentioned today, DC, we are doing electoral certification. We also have all these protests out there, because – I don’t know what – today is the day of the coup or whatever, according to QAnon or something. So I mean, what is the status of all of this as we try to end it?
JESSICA SMITH: Well, you can drag on a little, Ossoff’s race in particular. If he maintains his lead, but is still within half a percentage point, the campaign may request a recount. So that would drag things a little bit. In addition, you must go through the certification process for these votes.
Therefore, it may take some time before the new senators are actually installed. The timeline is not exactly clear. And again, it will depend on whether they do a recount, which seems that, at least Ossoff’s race, is on that margin at this point. But it could be more like January 23 is a date that I’m seeing that may be as soon as they would be sworn in. But again, everything is very fluid now.
MYLES UDLAND: All right. Jessica Smith, from Yahoo Finance, with news from DC.