With over 50%, Ossoff delivers stunning outright victory, avoids runoff, advances to challenge scandal-plagued U.S. Sen. David Perdue
Defying Republican voter suppression, Democratic turnout shatters Georgia records
Latest Ossoff vs. Perdue polls show dead heat
Atlanta, Ga. — In a stunning landslide, investigative journalist and media executive Jon Ossoff tonight won Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, avoiding a widely-predicted runoff and advancing to challenge scandal-plagued U.S. Senator David Perdue in November.
Ossoff won 51% in the seven-way Democratic primary, shocking political observers who predicted an inevitable runoff in a seven-candidate field that included multiple well-known candidates with high name recognition and multi-million dollar campaign war chests.
Ossoff’s historic and decisive victory was driven by overwhelming support among Black voters statewide. Ossoff bluntly attacked racism and corruption in the criminal justice system, and closed his primary campaign by calling for a New Civil Rights Act to remedy racial inequity and repair race relations.
Recent polling has found the Ossoff-Perdue matchup is a dead heat. Perdue’s reelection prospects have faded amidst revelations of corruption and self-dealing and in light of Ossoff’s consistent strong polling versus Perdue, The Cook Political Report recently upgraded the race for Democrats.
“Our momentum is unstoppable. We will build a country with great health care for every citizen, with equal justice and civil rights for all, with world-class sustainable infrastructure and a clean political system,” said Ossoff.
“Yesterday’s election debacle lays bare the need to ensure a free and fair election for every Georgia voter, and our campaign will not stop working to achieve that goal. The people of Georgia deserve to have their voices heard, and that promise of our democracy must live up to its ideals.
This is the beginning of a new chapter in Georgia’s history and the beginning of the end for disgraced David Perdue.”
Ossoff leads a 30-year old investigative media production company, Insight TWI, renowned for hard-hitting investigations of corruption, organized crime, and war crimes seen by hundreds of millions of viewers on dozens of television channels worldwide.
In recent years, Ossoff’s firm has produced investigations of ISIS atrocities in northern Iraq, murder-for-hire, crooked judges, extrajudicial killings, and high-level corporate and political corruption.
Since launching his campaign in September, Ossoff has highlighted his experience fighting corruption and his plans to ensure every Georgian has great health care, pass the most ambitious infrastructure and clean energy package in American history, and enact a new Civil Rights Act. Ossoff also campaigned alongside his mentors, Congressional Black Caucus members John Lewis and Hank Johnson, who early endorsed his campaign.
While Ossoff has focused on ensuring every Georgian has health care and lowering prescription drug prices, Perdue has voted to throw millions off their health insurance and gut the Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions. Perdue opposed efforts to lower prescription drug prices and is heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
Perdue’s re-election prospects have been damaged by damning revelations of corruption and self-dealing, including investigative reporting by Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, 11Alive News, revealing Perdue sells meetings for corporate PAC checks and investigative reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealing Perdue sold casino shares and bought medical stocks in the weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic. Perdue’s shifting explanations and his refusal to place his stocks in blind trust have further damaged public confidence in his integrity.
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