Georgia 2020 election results: neck-and-neck race

Family and supporters hold runoff signs as Democratic US Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock speaks during an Election Night event

Credit: Jessica McGowan/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

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Many of the battleground states have yet to be called, including Georgia.

Joe Biden emerged on Wednesday after midnight to speak on the election results that have left the outcome in the balance and urged patience while all the votes are counted.

He told the crowd: ""We also just called it for Minnesota and we’re still in the game in Georgia, although that’s not one we expected."

In Georgia, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock have advanced to a Jan. 5 runoff in the special election for Ms Loeffler’s Senate seat.

They’re the top two finishers in a crowded field that also included Republican Rep. Doug Collins. But no candidate was able to get the 50 per cent threshold needed in order to win outright.

Ms Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman, was appointed last year to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson. Mr Warnock is pastor of the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.

Mr Warnock is trying to become Georgia’s first Black US senator.

Demographic changes

Georgia is not obvious Biden country. This is the Deep South. No Democrat has taken the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton 28 years ago. 

Georgia joined the Confederacy when it split from the Union. It is deeply religious and deeply conservative. For decades it has been redder than red.

But now the cracks are showing. Polls have had Mr Biden and Donald Trump neck-and-neck in the state.

Early voting

With still a week left to go before election day almost three million people had voted early in Georgia, closing in on 2016’s total of a little over four million. The remarkable turnout surge has Democrats optimistic.

What issues are at play?

The battle for Georgia boils down to urban versus rural. The Democrats want to rack up votes in the cities and hope that can outweigh the overwhelmingly pro-Trump countryside.

When Mr Biden delivered his speech Warm Springs, Georgia, he likened today’s crises — a pandemic and an economic crash — to those faced by Franklin D Roosevelt, the former US president and Democratic Party titan, who led America through the Great Depression and World War Two.

When is a result likely?

 With several contests still too early to call, and the Georgia race heading to a January runoff, the final verdict is expected to drag on.