The 2020âÂÂ21 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 3, 2020, and on January 5, 2021 (as a runoff), to elect the Class II member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue in the runoff election, despite Perdue receiving more votes in the first round. The general election was held concurrently with the 2020 presidential election, as well as with other elections to the Senate, elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
No candidate received a majority of the vote during the general election on November 3, so the top two finishersâÂÂPerdue (49.7%) and Ossoff (47.9%)âÂÂadvanced to a runoff election, held on January 5, 2021. The runoff was held concurrently with the special election for Georgia's other U.S. Senate seat (which had also advanced to a runoff), in which Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler lost to Democratic nominee Raphael Warnock. After the general round of elections, Republicans held 50 Senate seats and the Democratic caucus 48 (including two independents who caucus with them). As a result, the two runoffs decided control of the Senate under the incoming Biden administration. By winning both seats, Democrats took control of the chamber, with Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote giving them an effective majority. The extraordinarily high political stakes caused the races to attract significant attention nationwide and globally. On January 6, 2021, most major news outlets projected Ossoff the winner, in the midst of the US Capitol riot. Perdue conceded the race on January 8. According to OpenSecrets, this campaign was the most expensive in U.S. Senate history, with over $468 million spent. Ossoff's victory, along with Warnock's, gave the Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 2015. Ossoff and Warnock became the first Democrats to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia since Zell Miller in a 2000 special election.
Ossoff became the first Democrat elected to a full term in the Senate from Georgia since Max Cleland, who held this seat from 1997 to 2003, and the first Jewish member of the Senate from the state. Ossoff became the youngest senator since Don Nickles won in 1980, and the youngest Democrat since Joe Biden won in 1972. Georgia election officials certified Ossoff's victory on January 19, 2021; he was sworn in on January 20. Ossoff is the first Jewish senator from the Deep South since Benjamin F. Jonas of Louisiana, who was elected in 1878, and the first millennial United States senator. The two elections mark the first time since the 1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee and the concurrent special election that both Senate seats in a state have flipped from one party to the other in a single election cycle. This was also the first time the Democrats achieved this since West Virginia's 1958 Senate elections. With a margin of 1.2%, this election was also the closest race of the 2020 Senate election cycle. Following his election loss, Perdue ran in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election but lost in the Republican primary to incumbent Brian Kemp. Perdue would then go on to be nominated as the U.S. ambassador to China following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Almost four times as many Georgia voters participated in the 2020 Democratic Senate primary as in the 2016 primary, when only 310,053 votes were cast.
The first debate between Hazel, Ossoff, and Perdue occurred virtually on October 12.
A second debate between Ossoff and Perdue, held on October 28 in Savannah and aired on television station WTOC-TV, was more heated and made national headlines, with Ossoff saying that Perdue had claimed "COVID-19 was no deadlier than the flu", was "looking after [his] own assets, and... portfolio", and that Perdue voted "four times to end protections for preexisting conditions". Ossoff also called Perdue a "crook" and criticized him for "attacking the health of the people that [he] represent[s]". Perdue said Ossoff will "say and do anything to my friends in Georgia to mislead them about how radical and socialist" his agenda is. Video of the exchange went viral.
The next day, October 29, Perdue said he would not attend the third and final debate, previously scheduled to be broadcast on WSB-TV on November 1; instead Perdue decided to attend a rally with President Donald Trump in Rome on the same dayâÂÂ"as lovely as another debate listening to Jon Ossoff lie to the people of Georgia sounds", according to a Perdue spokesman.
On December 6, Ossoff debated an empty podium as Perdue declined to participate in a Georgia Public Broadcasting-held debate. Ossoff criticized Perdue's absence, accusing him of skipping the event because of the negative response to his performance in the October debates.
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No candidate received a majority of the vote on November 3, so the top two finishersâÂÂincumbent Republican senator David Perdue (49.7%) and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff (47.9%)âÂÂadvanced to a runoff election held on January 5, 2021.
Voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected were allowed to submit corrections until 5pm on November 6.
Perdue won eight of 14 congressional districts in the general election.
The runoff election between Perdue and Ossoff was on January 5, 2021, alongside the special election for the other Senate seat held by Republican Kelly Loeffler, to fill the remainder of Johnny Isakson's unexpired term (which expired in 2023). Loeffler was defeated by Raphael Warnock in that special election.
Following the 2020 Senate elections, Republicans held 50 Senate seats and the Democratic caucus 48. Since Democrats won both Georgia runoffs, their caucus gained control of the Senate, as the resultant 50âÂÂ50 tie is broken by Democratic vice president Kamala Harris. If the Democrats had lost either race, Republicans would have retained control of the Senate. The high political stakes caused the races to attract significant nationwide attention. These elections are the third and fourth Senate runoff elections to be held in Georgia since runoffs were first mandated in 1964, following runoffs in 1992 and 2008. It is also the third time that both of Georgia's Senate seats have been up for election at the same time, following double-barrel elections in 1914 and 1932.
The deadline for registration for the runoff election was December 7, 2020. Absentee ballots for the runoff election were sent out beginning on November 18, and in-person voting began on December 14. Ossoff's runoff campaign largely focused around accusing Perdue of corruption as well as aggressively courting Black voters in an attempt to drive up turnout, while Perdue characterised Ossoff as a socialist and accused him of having ties to the People's Republic of China. Perdue's campaign was hampered by his refusal to state that Joe Biden had won that year's presidential election, which made it exceedingly difficult for him to argue that an Ossoff victory would create a Democratic trifecta.
As Ossoff and Warnock were both sworn in on January 20, 2021 shortly after the start of the Biden administration, Ossoff became Georgia's senior senator and Democrats simultaneously held both of GeorgiaâÂÂs U.S. Senate seats for the first time since 2003.
This section also contains pre-runoff polls excluding all candidates except head-to-head matchups.
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Ossoff won Washington and Baldwin counties in the runoff, after having lost them in the general election.
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
Despite losing the statewide runoff, Perdue held onto the eight congressional districts he had previously won in the general election.
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Voter samples and additional candidates<br />
Official campaign websites