On Tuesday January Fifth, Georgia had their senatorial runoff elections. The reason for the two runoff elections is because in Georgia a candidate cannot advance through a primary or general election without receiving more than 50 percent of the votes. If no candidate in the race is able to achieve this the two candidates with the most votes advance to a runoff election. This ensures that one of the two candidates in the runoff election will receive the majority of the votes. 

In this past November general election, both of Georgia’s senate seat races did not have a candidate who received more than 50 percent of the vote so both seats had a runoff election. Democrat Jon Ossof was against Republican David Perdue and Democrat Raphael Warnock was against Republican Kelly Loeffler.The Washington Post reported that the “Pair of Georgia runoff races are razor close with the U.S. Senate control at stake” This was because these two runoff seats would determine whether Republicans or Democrats will control the chamber in Washington. 

In the race against Jon Ossof vs David Perdue, the winner was Democratic Jon Ossof. The race was very close as Jon Ossof received 50.6% percent of the vote and David Perdue received 49.4% of the votes. In the second runoff election the winner was Raphael Warnock who defeated Kelly Loeffler. This was also a close race with Democrat Raphael Warnock receiving 51% of the votes and Republican Kelly Loeffler receiving 49% of the votes casted. ABC news reported “As final votes were counted Wednesday, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his last days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda.”

The results of both of these runoff elections were very crucial to see whether the Republicans or Democrats will control the senate. In order for the Republicans to keep control they needed to win one of the two seats while the Democrats needed to win both seats. Since both Democrat Jon Ossof and Democrat Raphael Warnock won, the Democrats will take control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since Republicans gained power in 2015. The Democrats winning both seats made the senate equal with 50 Republican Senators and 50 Democrat Senators, but Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast tie breaking votes giving the democrats the majority.