Jon Ossoff Wins Georgia Senate Primary, Will Face Sen Perdue In November: Polls

Democratic senatorial candidate Jon Ossoff won Georgia’s primary election to take on Republican Sen. David Perdue in November. He won with 50.5% of the vote, just barely eclipsing the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.

Ossoff’s emergence onto the political scene came in 2017, when he narrowly lost a special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in what was at the time the most expensive House race in U.S. history. He lost the race to Republican Karen Handel, who lost her seat in 2018 to Democrat Lucy McBath.

The election has become more competitive in recent months as Democrats view Georgia as a step to taking back the Senate in November. Once a reliably Republican state, it has trended toward the political center as its population has grown.

In Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, consisting of Atlanta’s northern suburbs, Karen Handel won the Republican primary in a landslide and will take on McBath in November in hopes of winning back her old seat.

In Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, Carolyn Bourdeaux and Rich McCormick won the Democratic and Republican primary, respectively. Though Bourdeaux, failed to win over 50% of the vote, she is a heavy favorite to win the runoff election in August. The candidates are each hoping to succeed Republican Rep. Rob Woodall, who announced his retirement in 2018. The seat was the most competitive in the country in 2018, as Woodall won re-election by only 433 votes.

In addition to these races, a special election for Georgia’s second Senate seat is also slated for November. The race is an open primary, and if no candidate eclipses 50%, the top two candidates will face off in a runoff in January 2021.