Jon Ossoff claws back from behind to force a runoff in Georgia
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By David Ian Klein November 6, 2020
Jon Ossoff, the Jewish Senate candidate running as a Democrat for one of Georgia’s seats, is headed toward a runoff with his opponent, Republican incumbent David Perdue.
Though some ballots remain to be counted, it appears neither Ossoff nor Perdue will clear the 50% threshold of the vote to win the race outright.
Over the course of the campaign, Ossoff was smeared by Perdue with antisemitic ads which elongated his nose in effort to highlight Ossoff’s Jewishness.
The race between Ossoff and Perdue will now be decided at a special election on January 5, 2021.
Georgia’s other Senate race is also headed to a runoff, as neither Democrat Reverend Rapheal Warnock nor Republican Kelly Loeffler cleared the threshold, either.
The two Georgia runoffs could be key to Democrats taking control of the Senate.
Warnock wasn’t just facing off with a challenger from the right, but was also threatened from within his own camp by Jewish Democratic candidate Matt Lieberman, the son of Joe Lieberman.
Democrats had urged Lieberman to drop out, but even despite low polling, he refused. With 98% reporting, Lieberman has received only 2.8% of the vote.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
