New poll this week finds Ossoff leading Perdue 45-44
Ossoff outraised Perdue by over $1.2M in the second quarter
Perdue continues to face allegations of insider trading and financial misconduct
Atlanta, Ga. — Today the nonpartisan “Cook Political Report” moved Georgia’s U.S. Senate race between investigative journalist and media executive Jon Ossoff (D) and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) from “Lean Republican” to a “Toss-Up,” yet another sign of the “tightening” race that could likely decide control of the U.S. Senate.
Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor writes that this shift, along with four other states, means that Democrats are now favored to take back the U.S. Senate.
Taylor: Georgia “is the newest state that is giving Republicans a heavy dose of heartburn” and “is now the second most expensive race the GOP is putting defensive money down on.”
Cook Political Report also credited the shift to Ossoff’s dominant outright primary victory last month, in which he garnered over 50 percent against multiple well-funded, well-known candidates to avoid a runoff, demonstrating “the strength of his campaign.”
In addition, the report notes that private GOP polling shows this race in a dead-heat, which tracks recent trends.
Just yesterday, Ossoff’s campaign released an internal poll that found him leading Perdue 45-44 percent. The poll found Ossoff had a 16-point lead (55-39) over Perdue among surveyed Georgians who knew of both candidates (roughly three-fifths of the survey).
Leading Democratic pollster Fred Yang also noted that this shows Ossoff has room to grow his lead as he continues to communicate his message to Georgians across the Peach State.
This follows a series of polls that show a neck-and-neck race between Ossoff and the first-term incumbent, who continues to face allegations of insider trading and financial misconduct stemming from stock trades made before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Jon’s momentum is growing stronger every day. This race is a toss-up because Jon’s unifying message is resonating across the Peach State. Georgia voters are ready for a new path forward, and they know Jon will deliver that change to Washington,” said Ellen Foster, Ossoff’s campaign manager. “Senator David Perdue was too busy trading medical and vaccine stocks to prepare us for this pandemic. Georgians are demanding a government that serves their interests, and we will take that call to the ballot box in November to defeat David Perdue.”
In addition to strong polling, Ossoff outraised Perdue by over $1.2 million in the second quarter. With an average donation of just $20, Ossoff raised more in the final 20 days of the quarter than Perdue raised during the entire three-month span. This grassroots momentum has translated to tightening polling, and the race has become one of the most competitive nationwide — confirmed by the Cook Political Report’s ratings shift.
Democratic voters are highly engaged in this election. In June, 1,186,660 Georgians participated in Ossoff’s primary, the highest turnout ever, which doubled the Democratic primary turnout from the 2018 Gubernatorial primary. Over 400,000 of this year’s primary voters had never voted in a primary before, and Democrats exceeded Republican primary participation by more than 182,000 votes — the first Primary in which Democrats outvoted Republicans in over a decade.
Since the November 2018 elections, over 750,000 Georgians have registered to vote. Of those new voters, 49 percent are voters of color and 45 percent are under the age of 30.
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