ATLANTA – Investigative journalist Jon Ossoff has won Georgia’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary, piling up enough votes to avoid an August runoff.
Ossoff declared victory in Tuesday’s primary on Wednesday night after enough ballots had been counted to show him with a winning margin of 51% of the vote.
Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who earlier had appeared poised to force Ossoff into a runoff, finished second with 15% of the vote, followed by Marietta businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico, with 12%. Four other candidates were in the single digits.
Ossoff is now free to focus on his bid to unseat first-term Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in November.
“Our momentum is unstoppable,” Ossoff said. “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.”
Ossoff’s win came after a primary election marred by disarray. Some voters practicing social distancing to avoid coronavirus waited in line for hours at the polls to cast their ballots, while others who had requested mail-in absentee ballots didn’t get to vote at all because they never received the ballots or got them too late.
Ossoff and other Democrats blasted Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s handling of the election, while Raffensperger criticized local elections officials – particularly in Democratic-controlled Fulton County – for failing to “properly train” poll workers.
“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,” Ossoff said Wednesday night. “The people of Georgia deserve to have their voices heard, and that promise of our democracy must live up to its ideals.”
Ossoff lost a bid for a U.S. House seat in a special election three years ago and took some heat for that defeat during the primary campaign. But he outraised his Democratic opponents by a wide margin and held a big lead in the polls.