Just barely missing the 50% vote total needed to secure reelection, Georgia’s Republican Sen. David Perdue will now face a runoff in January with liberal Democrat opponent Jon Ossoff.
With near-final results in, Perdue led with just under 50%, followed by Ossoff with 47.7% and Libertarian Shane Hazel at 2.3%.
While surprised that Perdue did not win outright, state and national Republicans who spoke to Newsmax voiced confidence that the first-term Republican senator would be reelected in January. An exact date for the runoff has yet to be named by the Georgia secretary of state.
“David Perdue won this race in regular time and will do the same in overtime,” said Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Georgians have rejected Jon Ossoff’s liberal, socialist agenda not once, not twice, but three times.”
Former Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., a past chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, agreed.
“We are in similar position as we were when [then-Republican Sen.] Saxby [Chambliss] was forced into a runoff in 2008 by a larger than expected Libertarian vote,” Linder told us. “He won the runoff by about 15 percentage points. In David’s runoff, rabid anti-Trump vote doesn’t have the same incentive to vote, and he will win by 8 or 10 [percentage points].”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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