Georgia Senate special election result projected to go to a runoff, Democrat Warnock advances

The hotly contested Georgia special election is projected to go to a runoff, according to NBC News, with Democratic nominee Raphael Warnock advancing against a Republican challenger that remains unclear.

Two Republicans — Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins — have fought fiercely in the election, with recent polls of the race show support split relatively evenly between them.

With no candidate projected to reach more than 50% of the vote, special election rules state that the top two finishers will compete in a critical January runoff election that will help determine which party takes control of the U.S. Senate. 

That runoff election would be set for Jan. 5.

One of two fierce 2020 races for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats, the special election pitted several candidates against each other to replace retiring Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson.

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp chose businesswoman Loeffler in late 2019 to temporarily replace Isakson after he retired due to “health challenges” with three years left in his term. 

Since Isakson had so much time left, his seat is up for election both this year in the special contest to finish the current term and again in 2022 for a regular, six-year Senate tenure.

On the Democratic side, support had mostly consolidated by November behind Warnock, a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Warnock’s church is known across the country as where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor in the 1960s.

Warnock’s principal opponent on the left was Matt Lieberman, son of the former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman faced widespread pressure from fellow Democrats to drop out of the race out of fear his presence on the ballot could jeopardize the party’s chances to qualify for the runoff.

Notable demographic changes around Georgia’s major cities like Atlanta have slowly put the historically Republican state in play for Democrats on the national stage.

On the Republican side, Loeffler faced a tough reelection challenge from GOP Rep. Doug Collins, a fierce supporter of President Donald Trump.

Loeffler became the second woman to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate in January and marked a controversial pick for Kemp, who resisted Trump’s calls to nominate Collins. Other Republicans worried that Loeffler, who once supported political maverick and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, simply wasn’t conservative enough.

Loeffler was quick to bolster her conservative resume throughout 2020 in the hopes of fending off attacks from Collins, who had for months argued that he has a more-consistent political track record. 

Asked during a debate in October to name one thing Trump has said or done that she disagrees with, Loeffler said “No” and trumpeted her several months of voting with the president.

For his part, Collins for months touted what he believes is his more-consistent adherence to conservative values and attacked Loeffler for “shady” stock trading earlier in the year.

Loeffler, the wealthiest member of Congress, came under fire in the spring after it was revealed that that she and her husband had sold up to $3 million worth of equities. Those stock sales came right before a massive drop in the market in reaction to the spread of Covid-19 in the United States. 

Adding to the scrutiny, Loeffler is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange. The couple’s combined net worth is about $520 million, according to The Washington Post.

The regular election for Georgia’s other Senate seat between incumbent Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff is also extremely competitive.