Biden elected president as Georgia likely flips to blue state

November 9, 2020 Staff

Decatur citizens and others across the country took to the streets Nov. 7 to celebrate the news of Joe Biden being elected to president of the U.S., a victory that also saw Georgia flip to a “blue” state during the historic election.

The last time a non-incumbent Democrat won a statewide race in Georgia was 1998 when Roy Barnes was elected governor.

Celebrations of Biden’s victor in the U.S. presidential racestook places are citizens lines streets in downtown Decatur and cities across the country. Photo from video posted by April Swisher-Hartle

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice Presdent-elect Kamala Harris were closing in Saturday on ending that 22-year record of futility. Hours after Biden clinched the presidency by carrying his birth state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic challenger was leading President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the Peach State by a razor-thin margin of 7,248 votes, still too close to call.

As of 1: 30 p.m. Nov. 7, Biden led Trump in Georgia by more than 10,600 votes. Biden had surpassed the 270 electoral votes threshold, having received 290 electoral votes to to 214 electoral votes received by Trump. DeKalb County has been a heavily Democratic county for decades, with 82.54 percent of its voters, or 306,987, voting for Biden. Georgia and North Carolina are the only states that have yet declare its electoral votes.

Biden’s successful bid for the White House helped Georgia Democrats force runoffs against incumbent Republicans in two U.S. Senate races and a third runoff for a seat on the state Public Service Commission.

Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock made two January runoffs against incumbent Republicans vying to hold their seats in the U.S. Senate

As of noon Nov. 9, incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue fell just short of winning a majority of the votes in the race against Ossoff, forcing a runoff between the two. Statewide, Perdue received 49.8 percent of votes, or 2,456,322. Ossoff received about 90,000 less votes.

Warnock, as expected, finished first in a crowded special election in which he was the Democratic front-runner receiving 32,9 percent, or 1.61 million votes statewide. Incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Warnock in the runoff after coming in second with an estimated 1.27 million votes.

Both runoffs will take place Jan. 5. With control of the U.S Senate uncertain after the General Election results, the two Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs will decide which party runs the upper chamber during the next two years.

Democrats were outvoted in Georgia by 200,000 votes in 2016. Two years later, Democrat Stacey Abrams lost the governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp by 55,000 votes.

That realignment has been coming during the last decade with demographic changes in the makeup of Georgia’s electorate.

*Contributions from Dave Williams, Capitol Beat News Service