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Georgia Senate elections live updates: Jon Ossoff projected to win Ga. Senate seat

The projected win cements Democrats' control of the Senate.

Last Updated: January 8, 2021, 11:44 AM EST

ABC News projected early Wednesday that Rev. Raphael Warnock will win the race against Kelly Loeffler and on Wednesday afternoon that Jon Ossoff is projected to defeat David Perdue. Together, the two projected wins hand Democrats control of the Senate.

For live updates on the vote totals, click here.

Top headlines:

Here is how the runoffs are unfolding. All times Eastern.
Jan 06, 2021, 10:51 AM EST

Romney suggests Trump might have cost Republicans a win in Georgia

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, suggested that Trump’s rhetoric might have stopped Republicans from winning Georgia’s Senate runoff contests. ABC News has projected a Warnock victory but has not yet projected Ossoff as the winner -- though he has garnered a significant lead.

"It turns out that telling the voters that the election is rigged is not a great way to turn out your voters," Romney told reporters Wednesday morning. 

Romney brushed off questions about his flight to Washington, D.C., Tuesday night, where video shows him being heckled by possible Trump supporters.  

"That's something I've gotten used to over the years,” Romney said. “That's the nature of politics today.” 

-ABC News’ Allie Pecorin

Jan 06, 2021, 8:41 AM EST

Ossoff declares victory against Perdue

Ossoff declared victory Wednesday morning in his race against Perdue.

While ABC News has not yet projected the race, Ossoff has garnered a significant lead overnight and his margin is now nearly 5,000 votes greater than President-elect Joe Biden's was over President Donald Trump in November.

"It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate," Ossoff said in video statement. "Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me."

Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff speaks after the runoff election against Republican Senator David Perdue in a still image from video in Atlanta, Jan. 6, 2021.
Jon Ossoff For Senate Campaign via Reuters

Ossoff, as he has throughout his campaign, lamented the toll of the coronavirus pandemic and stressed the importance of the country getting a grip over the deadly virus.

"I will work in the U.S. Senate to support a robust public health response so that we can defeat this virus, putting Georgia's own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the lead, trusting medical expertise, doctors, and scientists to bring the tools to bear, the technology to bear, the ingenuity to bear, and the resources to bear necessary to stop the spread of this virus to defeat it and to get our daily lives back -- and to rush direct economic relief to people who need help right now," he said.

Despite the bitter race with Perdue, Ossoff promised to be a senator for all Georgians.

"I want to thank the people of Georgia for participating in this election, everybody who cast your ballot, everybody who put your faith and confidence in our democracy's capacity to deliver the representation that we deserve, whether you were for me, or against me, I'll be for you in the U.S. Senate," he said. "I will serve all the people of the state," he said. "I will give everything I've got to ensuring that Georgia's interests are represented in the U.S. Senate."

Jan 06, 2021, 8:27 AM EST

'This is a historic moment,' Warnock says

Warnock called his projected victory a "historic moment," saying he "can't wait" to be in the upper chamber of Congress "to represent the concerns of ordinary people."

"I'm deeply honored that the people of Georgia decided to place their faith in me and have decided to send me to represent their interests in Washington, D.C.," Warnock told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on "Good Morning America."

"Certainly, this is a historic moment and I'm just deeply grateful to be a vessel in a moment in which we're facing such large problems in our country," he added, "and I can't wait to get to the U.S. Senate to represent the concerns of ordinary people."

Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 6, 2020.
ABC News

Warnock, a senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former pulpit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is the first Black senator Georgia has elected and only the 11th Black senator elected in U.S. history.

"Georgia is in such an incredible place when you think about the arc of our history, we are sending an African-American pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church where Martin Luther King Jr. served," he said. "This is the reversal of the old southern strategy that sought to divide people. In this moment we've got to bring people together in order to do the hard work and I look forward to doing that."

When asked about his top priority for this year in the Senate, Warnock said -- as he has throughout his campaign -- that the country needs to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.

"Like so many Americans, as we witnessed the incredible death toll over 350,000 Americans lost lives, lost livelihoods, we need a national strategy that takes this virus seriously, that gets the vaccine distributed safely and efficiently," he said. "We've got to re-open our economy, get our kids safely back to school and we got to make sure that people know that they will have their health care, particularly in the middle of a pandemic."

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

Jan 06, 2021, 7:54 AM EST

Warnock's lead now too big for Loeffler to request recount

Warnock's edge over Loeffler continued to grow Wednesday morning and is now too big for the incumbent Republican senator to request a recount.

Warnock currently leads by 53,430 votes, which is a margin of 1.2% of all votes cast in the race.

ABC News projected just before 2 a.m. ET that Warnock will win.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

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