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Adam Gabbatt (now); Martin Belam, Tom McCarthy in New York and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Democrats edge towards Senate control as Raphael Warnock wins Georgia runoff – as it happened

We’re moving to a new blog now – follow all the latest news on Georgia runoffs here:

Trump says he will 'never concede' as Congress nears certifying Biden's win

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Adam Gabbatt.

Donald Trump is now speaking to attendees of the “March to Save America” rally in Washington, less than an hour before Congress will convene to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

The president reiterated his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the election, telling rally attendees, “We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

Of course, Trump and his allies have failed to produce any evidence of widespread fraud in the November election.

And although some congressional Republicans intend to object to the certification of Biden’s win today, they have no path to actually blocking the president-elect from taking office.

The fact remains that Biden’s victory will be certified today, and he will be sworn in on January 20.

Summary

•Jon Ossoff is closing in on victory in the Georgia US Senate race. The Democrat was leading by more than 17,000 votes on Wednesday morning. A victory for Ossoff would tie the US Senate 50-50, effectively handing control to Democrats as vice-president elect Kamala Harris would have the tie-breaking vote.

•Raphael Warnock won his Senate election overnight, defeating Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. He becomes the first Black Democratic Senator to be elected from the south and Georgia’s first ever Black senator. In a victory speech Warnock noted that his mother, who had been a teenage sharecropper, had voted for him. “The 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” Warnock said.

•Joe Biden congratulated Warnock and promised “urgent action” on a fresh Covid relief bill. “I have long said that the bipartisan COVID-19 relief bill passed in December was just a down payment. We need urgent action on what comes next, because the COVID-19 crisis hits red states and blue states alike.”

•Thousands of Trump supporters have gathered in Washington for what is a doomed attempt to have Congress reject Joe Biden as president. Congress is meeting to certify each state’s election results, but a dozen Republican senators have announced they will join with conspiracy-minded members of the House of Representatives to reject the outcome of certain states.

Joe Biden has put out a statement on Raphael Warnock’s victory in Georgia, praising activists and voters and suggesting further Covid relief for Americans.

“I congratulate Reverend Warnock on his groundbreaking win last night and I am hopeful that when the count is complete, Jon Ossoff will also be victorious,” Biden said.

“I congratulate the people of Georgia, who turned out in record numbers once again, just as they did in November, to elect two new Senators, demand action, and call on our elected leaders to end the gridlock and move us forward as a nation.”

Biden also praised the work of two prominent Georgia women in clinching Warnock’s win.

“I also congratulate the twin powers of Georgia, Stacey Abrams and Keisha Lance Bottoms, who have laid the difficult groundwork necessary to encourage turnout and protect the vote over these last years.”

The president-elect then appeared to suggest there could be swift action on a new Covid relief bill. In the wake of Warnock’s win some Democrats have already called for $2,000 relief checks to be issued to most Americans – a big increase on the $600 agreed on last week.

“I have long said that the bipartisan COVID-19 relief bill passed in December was just a down payment. We need urgent action on what comes next, because the COVID-19 crisis hits red states and blue states alike.”

Updated

Rudy Giuliani here, ready to stake what is left of his reputation on a disproven conspiracy theory:

Jon Ossoff has extended his lead in the Georgia US Senate race after vote counting resumed this morning.

The majority of votes yet to be counted are from traditionally Democratic areas, which is good news for Ossoff. The 33-year-old now leads by more than 17,000 votes, up from about 16,000 overnight. Ossoff declared victory this morning, but news outlets have not yet confirmed the result.

Updated

Here’s what’s going on at the anti-election results/anti-democracy Trump rally in Washington, where the president is expected to speak shortly:

The Guardian’s Julian Borger has also been following some of the fashion at the rally:

Progressive Democrats are making their case for $2,000 relief checks to be sent to many Americans – as the party claims victory for Jon Ossoff in Georgia. (The Guardian and other news outlets have not yet called the Ossoff-Perdue race.)

Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader, blocked Democrats efforts to issue $2000 Covid relief checks, and instead a $600 check will be sent to Americans who earn less than $75,000 a year, with smaller payments available to those who make more.

Democrats including Andrew Yang and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are now making the case for their party to aim high in the new Congress.

Updated

A reminder of how things work in the USA:

The numbers in the greatest democracy in the world aren’t likely to improve any time soon.

By 2040 two-thirds of Americans are expected to be represented by just 30% of the Senate, as the Washington Post noted a couple of years back.

A bunch of Trump supporters are gathered in Washington, to protest the results of the presidential election.

Video from the rally suggests that the protesters are currently spending a lot of time chanting “USA, USA,” in the time-honored style.

They are asserting that there was widespread voter fraud in the November election, which of course is nonsense, and are demanding that the electoral college reject Joe Biden today, which won’t happen.

Organizers expected 30,000 people to attend the event. It’s difficult to tell yet if that many have actually turned out.

Trump is due to speak at the rally at 11am.

Supporters of Donald Trump hold a rally outside the US Capitol as they protest the upcoming electoral college certification of Joe Biden as US president.
Supporters of Donald Trump hold a rally outside the US Capitol as they protest the upcoming electoral college certification of Joe Biden as US president. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

More from Raphael Warnock:

Chuck Schumer has hailed the Georgia results as “a brand new day”, in what amounts to a victory statement from the Senate Democratic leader. (The Guardian and other new outlets have not yet called the Ossoff–Perdue race.)

“For the first time in six years, Democrats will operate a majority in the United States Senate – and that will be very good for the American people,” Schumer said.

“America is experiencing one of the greatest crises we have ever faced, and the Senate Democratic Majority is committed to delivering the bold change and help Americans need and demand. Senate Democrats know America is hurting -- help is on the way.”

Schumer continued:

We are grateful to everyone in Georgia and across the country who volunteered their time, donated what they could, and worked so hard to elect new leadership in Washington.

Senators-elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff ran first-rate campaigns and will be outstanding Senators for Georgia. When Raphael Warnock was born, both of Georgia’s Senators were segregationists.

Yesterday, Georgia just elected its first African-American Senator in its history. I am so proud of both of their campaigns and excited to welcome them to the Senate.

As Majority Leader, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will have a partner who is ready, willing and able to help achieve a forward-looking agenda and deliver help and bold change to the American people.

This is Adam Gabbatt taking over from Martin Belam.

Updated

Here’s another quote from Rev. Raphael Warnock, who has been doing the morning media round after his Senate run-off victory. He told ABC:

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. I can’t wait to get to the US Senate to represent the concerns of ordinary people.

One reason why Republicans might still be backing Donald Trump’s outlandish attempt to overthrow November’s election result? The reaction they get from the Trump base for not doing it.

Sen. Mitt Romney has been on the receiving end of a couple of video clips that have gone viral on social media. One piece of footage appears to show Trump supporters chanting “Traitor!” at Romney while he was in transit from Salt Lake City to Washington DC for today’s joint session of Congress.

An earlier video shows Romney being approached while at the airport by a woman. After the Senator asks her to put her facemask on, she demanded to know “Why aren’t you supporting president Trump?”

Romney insisted in reply that “We have a Constitution and the constitutional process is clear and I will follow the Constitution.”

There’s still government business as usual going on, and Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin has just given a read-out from his visit to Khartoum in Sudan, where the US have agreed to provide a $1.2 billion loan to the government there.

Reuters report that it is the first visit by a sitting US treasury chief to Sudan. Mnuchin’s one-day visit focused on the country’s struggling economy and possible US economic assistance, including debt relief. Sudan’s Finance Ministry said the “memorandum of understanding” would facilitate the payment of Sudan’s arrears to the World Bank, enabling it to access more than $1 billion annually from the World Bank, for the first time since Sudan was designated as pariah state nearly three decades ago.

President Donald Trump is tweeting about today’s process in Congress. He appears again to be incorrectly asserting that vice president Mike Pence has the unilateral power to reject the results from individual states.

It’s not entirely clear if it was a direct response, but the current Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer tweeted within a couple of minutes “Buckle up!”

Trump has continued his rant, and started talking about how the country needs “the power of the veto”.

Incidentally, if you’d like a decent explanation of what will actually happen today in Congress that isn’t being delivered in ALL CAPS on Twitter, then my colleague Tom McCarthy has you covered here:

A joint session of Congress is scheduled to begin meeting on Wednesday at 1pm to finally certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Every state certified its election results before a 14 December deadline. The states submitted results to the national archivist. On Wednesday, copies of the certifications will be delivered to Congress in ceremonial boxes.

The presiding officer for the proceedings is the vice-president, Mike Pence, in his role as president of the senate. If the vice-president is unavailable, the longest-serving senator would fill in. The presiding officer announces each state in alphabetical order. Each state’s result is announced in turn. The tally for each presidential candidate accrues as the votes are announced.

Read more here: What’s expected to happen when Congress meets to certify the 2020 election result?

Warnock describes Georgia run-off victory as 'stunning'

Gerogia’s newest Senator, Rev. Raphael Warnock, has been on CNN this morning after his victory over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler yesterday. He told the network:

What happened last night is stunning. We flipped the state. And it took a lot of hands to do that. It is the result of giving people their voice. Over the last 10 years I’ve worked with many others to register hundreds of thousands of new voters in this state. Those voters, alongside others, stood up last night, and they sent a clear message to Washington: this is the people’s democracy, you don’t own it. If you have power it is because we’ve extended it to you for a period of time. It is a kind of stewardship, a sacred trust, and it’s one that I take very seriously. And I hope to honour that promise in the work that we will do in the days ahead.

Warnock also confirmed that while serving in the Senate, he still intends to return to his pulpit and preach on Sunday mornings.

You can watch the clip here:

Ossoff promises 'Whether you were for me, or against me, I’ll be for you in the US Senate'

Jon Ossoff has given a speech thanking the people of Georgia for electing him to the US senate – not that the final tally is quite in yet. In his speech he asked the country to unite to beat the coronavirus pandemic and for the government to rush “direct economic relief” to those affected. He opened:

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

Ossoff went on to say:

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 US Senate. I will serve all the people of the state. I will give everything I’ve got to ensuring that George’s interests are represented in the US Senate.

As mentioned, the final results from Georgia are not in yet, and counting has resumed this morning. New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman doesn’t have any doubts about the outcome though.

Updated

An interesting tweet just now from the secretary of state’s official US government account. Mike Pompeo is promoting an “America First” message ahead of Congress confirming that he will be out of a job and replaced by Antony Blinken in the Joe Biden administration.

Jon Ossoff gives live online address 'Thank you, Georgia'

Jon Ossoff is about to give a live online address which you can watch here:

Jon Ossoff address

Please note we still don’t have the final result in Georgia yet, and Associated Press are yet to call the Ossoff-Perdue race for either candidate, though Ossoff holds a narrow lead with the vast majority of votes counted.

Updated

Lloyd Green writes for us this morning on the lasting harm that Donald Trump and his allies have done to US democracy with their coup attempt.

Presidents Hoover, Carter and Bush Sr all suffered rejection at the ballot box after just one term. However painful, they accepted the electorate’s verdict. In the end, personal pride took a backseat to the orderly transition of power. The nation had spoken.

Likewise, in 2000, Al Gore ultimately acquiesced to a split US supreme court decision, which the late Justice Antonin Scalia later confessed was “as we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit”, and conceded to George W Bush. Adding insult to injury, Gore, who was then vice-president, presided over the joint session of Congress where the results were announced and certified. Fealty to the American experiment came first.

Not any more. The US confronts a president determined to hold on to power past the constitutionally mandated expiration of his term, and congressional Republicans hellbent on aiding and abetting this desperate bid to overturn the election’s outcome.

Last Thursday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, told his caucus that the upcoming votes were the “most consequential” of his career. It was not hyperbole. More than two centuries of supremacy of consent of the governed and We the People are riding on it.

Read more here: Lloyd Green – Congress is facing an election reckoning. Democracy hangs in the balance

When Raphael Warnock was born, the state of Georgia was represented in the Senate by two segregationists – one of them, Herman Talmadge, a southern Democrat who opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

Today, Warnock, a senior preacher at the Ebenezer Baptist church, where Martin Luther King Jr once preached, has been elected the first African American Democratic senator from a formerly Confederate state.

His victory over the hardline Trump supporter and Republican incumbent, Kelly Loeffler, who tried to cast Warnock as a “Marxist radical”, is significant for a number of reasons.

It not only marks a repudiation of the racist dog-whistle politics of the Trump era, but a change in the political dynamics of Georgia where – until Joe Biden’s victory in the state in November – no Democratic presidential candidate had won since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Growing up in a housing project in Savannah in a family of 12 children, Warnock preached his first sermon at 11 and attended the same college, Morehouse, where King had studied.

Serving as an intern at the Sixth Avenue Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, under the civil rights activist John Thomas Porter, Warnock would later become the youngest senior preacher at King’s own church.

Outspoken from the pulpit and on the campaign trail about social justice and racial inequality – some of which has been used in crude Republican attack ads against him – Warnock’s approach, as the religious scholar Jonathan Lee Walton wrote recently in the Washington Post, has been informed by a truth-telling tradition in African American churches that “places an overwhelming moral emphasis on society’s most vulnerable and oppressed”.

Warnock’s political rise, in which he has takan up the mantle of an earlier generation of civil rights activists, has coincided with changes in Georgia.

The home state of the former president Jimmy Carter, like other places, has seen its big cities, not least Atlanta, and suburbs increasingly turn Democratic in the last couple of decades, even as the local party has abandoned trying to find candidates palatable to more conservative rural white voters – all of which has helped energise the younger and black electorate in vote-rich metropolitan areas.

The final part of the puzzle, according to some Republicans, was Donald Trump, who interposed his own conspiratorial grievances into the campaign even as he impugned Republican state officials.

Read more of Peter Beaumont’s analysis here: Why Raphael Warnock was elected Georgia’s first black US senator

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is one Republican who will not be objecting to the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory in Congress today. She has just tweeted that “We have sworn an oath under God to defend the Constitution. We uphold that oath at all times, not only when it is politically convenient.”

Jon Ossoff’s team have just confirmed that he will be giving some virtual remarks on the Georgia senate run-off in about an hour’s time. The remarks will be streamed online at 8am ET.

Jon Ossoff speaking to the media yesterday.
Jon Ossoff speaking to the media yesterday. Photograph: Branden Camp/AP

If you are wondering what the prospects are for the Republicans derailing the process of Congress formally declaring Joe Biden the next US president, then the short answer is that they don’t have the numbers in the House. The long answer is that we are possibly going to have to go through a very lengthy joint Congress session to have that actively demonstrated.

Politico have a piece looking ahead to the day’s events, which points out how challenges have proved futile in the past, and re-iterates vice president Mike Pence’s awkward position today:

During Wednesday’s session, Pence, per the Twelfth Amendment and laws stretching back to 1887, must read the results alphabetically by state, introducing the certified electors and entertaining any challenges raised by lawmakers on hand. But Trump, beginning Monday night, has begun leaning on Pence to adopt a radical interpretation of his power and refuse to count Biden’s electors in multiple states — a power Pence does not have.

Pence has said little publicly, other than that he expects to entertain Republican challenges to Biden’s electors from key states, indicating that he anticipates introducing Biden’s electors — a decision Trump has pressed him to refuse to make.

People familiar with the vice president’s thinking said he will be guided by the Constitution and plans to follow the law as written when he presides over the joint session, suggesting he will ignore calls to unilaterally reject Biden’s electors, despite the blow it could deliver to his own presidential ambitions.

In years past, the vice president’s ceremonial role has barely merited a mention — except for the awkwardness of 2001 and 2017, when Al Gore and Joe Biden were required to certify their rivals’ victories.

No challenges to electors have ever been upheld. The last time objectors forced a debate came in 2005, when Democrats cited irregularities in Ohio’s election results. The challenge was easily swept aside in both chambers. House Democrats also objected to the results in 2001 and 2017 but no senators joined them.

Read more here: Politico – Congress set to certify Biden’s win as Trump fuels unrest

Nancy Cordes, the Chief Congressional Correspondent for CBS News, has just tweeted setting a little of the scene we can expect in Washington DC today as thousands of Donald Trump supporters are expected to protest against Joe Biden’s election victory.

It’s not just election news today. There’s still a pandemic on. And this morning we have a piece looking at how in the US, the people of color and immigrants who bear the brunt of Covid-19 are also subject to the most punitive enforcement of public health orders:

Covid-19’s spread is neither colorblind nor colorless, sending Black, Latinx and Indigenous people to the hospital at a rate four times higher than white people. To make matters worse, the people of color and immigrant communities who already bear the brunt of the Covid-19 outbreak are also subject to the most punitive enforcement of emergency public health orders. The co-occurring pandemics of Covid-19 and state violence are deeply interconnected.

The Covid-19 Policing Project launched in May 2020 to monitor how cities, states, territories and tribal jurisdictions police the pandemic. As we watched cops drag a Black man off a bus in Philadelphia, put a Black man in a chokehold, and throw a Black mother to the ground in New York City in front of her toddler, all in the name of promoting health and safety, we asked ourselves: if this is the floor for treatment during unprecedented health, economic and state violence crises, then what is the ceiling?

Our findings six months later, summarized in the recently released report Unmasked: Impacts of Pandemic Policing, clearly show that arrests, racial disparities in enforcement, police violence and aggression did not pause because people are dying in record numbers. Instead criminalization continues to target the people who are susceptible to disproportionately dying from both the virus and under the hands and knees of police. Not only did the uneven enforcement of Covid-19 public health orders track predictable patterns of policing, it also strengthened and widened the webs of criminalization which ensnare marginalized communities.

The Covid-19 Policing Project reviewed public information about enforcement over the past six months and found that Black, Indigenous and people of color (Bipoc) were 2.5 times more likely to be policed and punished for violations of Covid-19 orders than white people. Black people specifically were 4.5 times more likely to be policed and punished for coronavirus orders than white people.

Read more here: The data is in. People of color are punished more harshly for Covid violations in the US

Julian Assange refused bail despite UK judge ruling against extradition to US

Julian Assange has been refused bail in the wake of a legal ruling that he should not be extradited to the US .

The co-founder of Wikileaks has been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for the past 18 months after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.

While previous bail applications had been rejected, his lawyers believed his chances of bail being granted on Wednesday were greatly boosted by the legal win in his fight against extradition to the US on espionage and hacking charges.

Assange’s lawyers on Wednesday emphasised new family ties here in the UK revolving around the two young children he has fathered with his partner, Stella Moris. Assange would be bailed to the couple’s home address, his legal team said.

Lawyers for US authorities have indicated they will appeal against Monday’s extradition ruling by a district judge, Vanessa Baraitser, who was sitting at the central criminal court of England and Wales. While rejecting arguments that Assange would not get a fair trial in the US, she blocked extradition on the basis that procedures in prisons there would not prevent him from potentially taking his own life.

Read more of Ben Quinn’s report here: Julian Assange refused bail despite UK judge ruling against extradition to US

Christina Marcos over at the Hill has picked out five themes to look out for in today’s Congress battle over the election. While reminding us that the Trump campaign has failed in all its legal challenges to the result, she says there’s still a question over how many objections we will see later today.

Firstly, how many Republicans overall will get involved. We can expect to see maybe as many as 100 House Republicans object to the results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But there aren’t yet, it appears, enough Senators willing to get on board to trigger debates and votes for all six.

Marcos also thinks we will be seeing the people likely to be in the running for the GOP 2024 nomination making most of the noise today, one way or another. She writes:

Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are both viewed as possible candidates in 2024 as they lead the charge catering to Trump’s wishes, while on the other side are senators like Sens. Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse who have argued against challenging the presidential election results.

Then there’s Donald Trump himself, who has hinted at launching another presidential campaign after he leaves the White House.

Perhaps the potential 2024 contender in the toughest position is vice president Mike Pence, who as president of the Senate will be tasked with overseeing Congress’s counting of the Electoral College votes. That ceremonial role means that Pence will have to formally announce Biden’s election victory of Trump once the count concludes.

But Trump is forcing Pence into a final loyalty test by pressuring him to challenge Biden’s win, even though the vice president doesn’t have the power to do so. “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you,” Trump said during a rally in Georgia this week. “Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him as much.”

Read more here: The Hill – Five themes to watch during Electoral College battle

Hi, it’s Martin Belam here taking over for Tom McCarthy. Before Congress gets started on the process of confirming Joe Biden’s presidential victory later today, president Donald Trump will be addressing a “Save America March” in DC.

Rudy Giulliani will be there as well, and we’ve just got a little taste of what we might expect from their script about the historic senate run-off vote in Georgia. Giulliani has just tweeted that he hopes to see conservative activist Mindy Robinson there.

Robinson has spent the last couple of hours tweeting out conspiracy-laden tweets about the election. Expect more of this as the day progresses.

US Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House of Representatives tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said on Tuesday that he had tested positive for coronavirus weeks after receiving a first dose of the Pfizer Inc COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reports:

Brady, 65, is the second House member to report testing positive for the virus this week. An aide to Representative Kay Granger, 77, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, announced on Monday that the lawmaker had tested positive.

A nurse in California tested positive for COVID-19 last month, more than a week after receiving the first dose of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine.

Experts say a second dose of the vaccine is needed to ramp up protection against the virus.

Elections analysts see Democrat Jon Ossoff headed for a victory over former senator David Perdue that would fall outside the automatic recount margin.

The race has not yet been called, and election workers have taken an overnight break. Counting is to resume in Atlanta at 8:30am ET.

In a December interview, Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown, a key organizer in Georgia, described a new voting coalition rising up in the South that “is really going to transform it”:

The work wasn’t overnight. It has been an ongoing process for more than a decade. The way I talk about community power is like electricity: Thomas Edison didn’t create electricity in the purest sense; what he created was a conduit to organize the energy and direct it. It was already there. That’s the same way I see organizing: We’re not creating power; the power is already there. This outcome in Georgia is a result of deep-seated organizing. It works. While I do certainly believe that Black folks, particularly Black women, were at the vanguard, we weren’t leading this by ourselves. There is a multigenerational, multicultural coalition that is rising up in the South and is really going to transform it.

‘I will fight for you’: Democrat Raphael Warnock declares victory in Georgia Senate runoff – video

The possibility of a double Democratic victory in the Georgia runoffs – and a resulting upset in control of the US senate – giving Democrats a trifecta in controlling the White House and both houses of Congress – dramatically enhancing their power to pursue a progressive agenda – would place the 2020 election in a new light.

How will the news from Georgia feel on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, when some ambitious Republican politicians have been planning to make opposition to democracy, and the promulgation of wildly false election fraud conspiracy theories, core parts of their personal brands?

A joint session of Congress is scheduled to hold a ceremonial count of the electoral vote on Wednesday and declare Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election. But senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who hope to run for president in 2024, and other Republicans have said they will object to the process.

Both Republican senatorial candidates in Georgia ran in lockstep with Trump and his post-election message (lie) that the election was stolen and he was the actual winner.

That message didn’t play so well in Georgia. Is it now obvious for the ambitious Republican politician that the smart play ahead of 2024 is to make themselves famous for taking lockstep fealty to Trump to the previously inconceivable height of asking Congress to refuse the result of a free and fair election?

Warnock's victory and the waning days of the Trump era

If anything marks the end of the Trump era, Rev Raphael Warnock’s historic victory in the Georgia senate race seems like a contender and a potential turning point.

Warnock will join Republican senator Tim Scott of South Carolina as the only African American senators from the deep South. But Warnock will be the first Black Democrat from the south to hold a US senate seat, ever.

Warnock’s victory, following Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, seems a strong signal that Black activists and organizers are succeeding at transforming the politics of the old South – winning not only big elections in presidential years but also scrappy, logistics-intensive runoff races in which Democrats have had trouble turning out voters in the past.

It comes after years of concerted effort by Black Lives Matter activists and serially repeated scenes of lethal police violence against people of color, and at the bitter end of a presidency that empowered white supremacy.

As a Baptist preacher from the South and a Democrat, the son of a field worker, Warnock will enter the US senate with a constituency that has in a sense never in history been represented there before.

Along with the hashtag #byeMitch, the takes are lighting up late-night US politics Twitter.

If the clearing smoke indeed reveals a double Democratic victory (!) in runoff elections (!) in the state of Georgia (!), the blame for the losses among Republicans, in contests that once seemed theirs to lose, are likely to gravitate to one place.

Warnock wins

Rev Raphael Warnock has defeated senator Kelly Loeffler to become the next Democratic US senator from Georgia, AP announces.

Warnock will become the state’s first Black US senator ever.

Updated

Fulton County – ie the city of Atlanta – has suspended counting for the evening, according to local reports.

“No more uploads tonight.” Work resumes at 8:30am ET.

There are also thousands of ballots left to be tallied in Dekalb county in the eastern Atlanta suburbs, a nice prospect for the Democrats.

A key engine driving the strong showing by Democrats, in the consensus of the wonks: enormous turnout by African American voters.

(The results of the Georgia senate runoffs are unofficial and the races remain uncalled.)

Updated

The Ossoff campaign says “we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won”.

Ossoff’s campaign manager, Ellen Foster, has released the following statement:

When all the votes are counted we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon’s performance has been dominant. We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

(Thanks @smithinamerica)

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who appears on the precipice of replacing Mitch McConnell as senate majority leader, has not sent a follow-up to this tweet:

(The Georgia races have not yet been officially called.)

As the Georgia runoff results come in, the president retains his laser-like focus on helping Republicans contain control of the Senate continues to spread inaccurate, false and misleading lies about the election he lost and which will usher him from office.

“If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency,” Trump tweeted just then.

The US Congress convenes in a joint session on Wednesday afternoon to receive the certified presidential election results from the states and announce the winner. Vice-president Mike Pence will preside in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate. Neither the constitution nor election law gives Pence any role beyond calling on members of congress and then announcing the result.

But Trump is pressuring Pence to go rogue and ... something. As with most of Trump’s internet-grown conspiracy theories, the president’s messaging to supporters here is disconnected from reality.

The tweet could “turn up the pressure” on Pence a bit, except that Pence is helpless to do what Trump imagines, and so in that sense there’s no pressure at all.

Updated

Hello, Tom here. The Warnock campaign has sent around a transcript of his speech. “Whether you voted for me or not—know this: I see you. I hear you. And I will fight for you,” he said. Here are excerpts:

I come before you as a proud American and a son of Georgia.

…A son of my late father who was a pastor, a veteran and a small businessman and my mother who, as a teenager growing up in Waycross, Georgia, used to pick somebody’s else’s cotton. But the other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States Senator.

Warnock speaks via YouTube.
Warnock speaks via YouTube. Photograph: Raphael Warnock Via Youtube/EPA

…So, I stand before you as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here.

We were told we couldn’t win this election, but tonight we proved that, with hope, hard work and the people by our side, ANYTHING is possible.

I am so honored by the faith that you have shown in me, and I promise you this: I am going to the Senate to work for Georgia, all of Georgia, no matter who you cast your vote for in this election.

To everyone out there struggling today—whether you voted for me or not—know this: I see you. I hear you. And I will fight for you. I will fight for your family.

Tonight so far

That’s it from me tonight. My Guardian colleague, Tom McCarthy, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the Georgia Senate results stand so far:

  • Both runoff races remain too close to call. However, there are some very promising signs for Democrats. Raphael Warnock leads Kelly Loffler by about 36,000 votes, while Jon Ossoff trails David Perdue by less than 1,000 votes, and most of the outstanding votes are in Democratic-leaning counties.
  • If Democrats can win both seats, they will flip control of the Senate. Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris would provide a tie-breaking 51st vote in the Senate if both Warnock and Ossoff win.
  • Warnock declared victory, while Loeffler refused to concede. Warnock said in a livestreamed speech to supporters, “Georgia, I am honored by the faith that you have shown in me. I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia.” But Loeffler insisted she still had a path to victory.
  • A top Republican official in Georgia blamed Donald Trump for the disappointing results tonight. Senior election official Gabriel Sterling told CNN that, if Perdue and/or Loeffler lose, then the blame for that will “fall squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions since November 3”.

Tom will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

In his speech, Raphael Warnock reflected on the historic nature of his potential victory in the Georgia Senate race.

If he wins, Warnock will be the first Black person to represent Georgia in the Senate. He will also be just the second African American to win a Senate seat in the Deep South since Reconstruction ended.

Warnock noted his mother, who grew up picking tobacco and cotton during her summers, was able to cast a ballot for him.

“The 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” Warnock said.

Warnock: 'I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia'

Raphael Warnock delivered a message of unity to all Georgians, as results from his Senate runoff race show him leading Republican Kelly Loeffler. (The race remains officially uncalled.)

“Georgia, I am honored by the faith that you have shown in me,” the Democratic candidate said. “I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia.”

Warnock argued this moment represented a choice for all Georgians and all Americans. “Will we continue to divide, distract and dishonor one another? Or will we love our neighbors as love ourselves?” Warnock said.

The Democrat also offered an olive branch to Republicans, after an ugly and divisive campaign that was marred by attacks from Loeffler’s team that Warnock’s supporters described as racist. (Warnock would be the first Black person to represent Georgia in the Senate.)

“Whether you voted for me or not, know this: I hear you. I see you. And every day I’m in the United States Senate, I will fight for you,” Warnock said.

Stacey Abrams celebrated Raphael Warnock as Georgia’s new senator, although the race remains too close to call.

“Congratulations to our next U.S. Senator, @ReverendWarnock,” Abrams said in a tweet. “Last January, I endorsed my dear friend in his quest to serve. Soon, he will walk those august halls & cast votes as a leader with courage, justice and integrity.”

Warnock is expected to soon address supporters in Georgia, so stay tuned.

Kelly Loeffler did not concede to Raphael Warnock, as the Republican candidate addressed supporters in Georgia.

“We have a path to victory,” Loeffler said. “We’re going to win this election.”

Loeffler currently trails Warnock by about 35,000 votes, and most of the outstanding votes are in Democratic-leaning counties.

Loeffler, who was appointed to her Senate seat by Georgia’s Republican governor, said she would return to Washington tomorrow to object to the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

As it seems increasingly likely that Republicans will lose both Georgia Senate races, Donald Trump is once again raising baseless concerns about the legitimacy of the vote count.

“Just happened to have found another 4000 ballots from Fulton County. Here we go!” the president said in a new tweet.

Again, there is nothing suspicious about counties reporting results in batches. Every county – whether it is leans conservative or liberal – is doing the same thing.

The simple fact is that both Senate races are moving away from Republicans.

Updated

Programming note: Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock is expected to address supporters in about 10 minutes.

As of now, Warnock leads Republican Kelly Loeffler by about 35,000 votes, with 95% of expected votes counted.

The AP has not yet called the Georgia Senate races, but some commentators are already reflecting on the possible Democratic sweep in the state.

The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer noted the historical significance of Raphael Warnock, a Black man, and Jon Ossoff, a Jewish man, potentially representing Georgia in the Senate:

The Guardian is not yet declaring a winner in either of the Georgia Senate races because we are waiting on the AP’s official race calls.

But it’s worth noting that Dave Wasserman, the widely respected editor of the Cook Political Report, has called both races – and control of the Senate along with them – for Democrats.

Updated

The infamous New York Times needle currently indicates that both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are headed toward victory, meaning Democrats are poised to flip the Senate.

But again, the Guardian is awaiting official race calls from the AP, so we still need to see more results from Georgia.

After the latest batch of ballots were posted, David Perdue leads Jon Ossoff by less than 500 votes, out of more than 4 million ballots cast.

The race between Raphael Warnock and Kelly Loeffler is not quite as close, as Warnock leads his Republican opponent by about 34,000 votes.

As of now, about 95% of the expected vote in Georgia has been counted.

Abrams says Democrats are on 'a strong path' in Senate races

Stacey Abrams, the former gubernatorial candidate who has been applauded for her substantial efforts to register and turn out Georgia Democrats, celebrated the results of the Senate races so far.

“With new votes joining the tally, we are on a strong path,” Abrams said in a new tweet. “But even while we wait for more, let’s celebrate the extraordinary organizers, volunteers, canvassers & tireless groups that haven’t stopped going since Nov. Across our state, we roared. A few miles to go...but well done!”

If Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff can pull off victories in their runoff races, many Democrats will likely credit Abrams with flipping the Senate.

Abrams is expected to once again run for governor in 2022, setting up a rematch against the Republican incumbent, Brian Kemp.

DeKalb county just reported more votes, and both Democratic Senate candidates netted about 100,000 votes from the update.

With the DeKalb update, Raphael Warnock has once again taken the lead over Kelly Loeffler, although he has just 0.4-point advantage.

Republican David Perdue remains ahead of Jon Ossoff, but his lead has shrunk.

Updated

Both of the Georgia Senate runoff races remain uncalled, but the progressive congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is already declaring victory.

The Michigan Democrat wrote in a tweet, “We got Mitch out the way.”

If Democrats win both of the Georgia races, they will flip control of the Senate, and Mitch McConnell will no longer be majority leader.

McConnell has been a consistent target of progressive ire, as the Republican leader has advanced Donald Trump’s agenda and overseen the confirmation of hundreds of conservative judges.

Updated

Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, told CNN that the final results of the Senate runoff races would not be known until “probably lunchtime tomorrow”.

A top official in Raffensperger’s office, Gabriel Sterling, also said that his boss’ timeline sounded like “a rational estimate”.

Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are currently ahead, but the outstanding votes are mostly in liberal-leaning counties, so the situation is still quite promising for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Updated

As we await an important update from DeKalb county, Donald Trump is once again stirring up doubts about the legitimacy of the results – without presenting any evidence, of course.

“Looks like they are setting up a big ‘voter dump’ against the Republican candidates. Waiting to see how many votes they need?” Trump said in a tweet.

In reality, counties always publish election results in batches. That’s true of the counties that Joe Biden won in November, and it’s true of the counties that Trump won in November.

There is absolutely nothing suspicious going on here.

Updated

Gabriel Sterling, a top Republican official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said there was a large batch of votes from DeKalb county expected soon.

DeKalb is a liberal-leaning county, so the update could allow Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to take the lead in their runoff races.

Excitement was building around the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Raphael Warnock is pastor and Martin Luther King Jr grew up and often preached. The 134-year-old church was firmly closed, its doors plastered with coronavirus warnings, but people outside could sense history in the making.

Cheryl Johnson, a voting engagement activist and community historian, said: “We’re hoping, we’re hoping. We know that Georgia is in the midst of a great change. We believe that we can lead the country forward as we have always led the country in many different ways. We have a history of great leadership. We have always been change makers.”

Raphael Warnock speaks at his Labor Canvass Launch at IBEW Local 613 in Marietta, Georgia.
Raphael Warnock speaks at his Labor Canvass Launch at IBEW Local 613 in Marietta, Georgia. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

Warnock would be the first Black person from Georgia elected to the Senate. Johnson stood on Auburn Avenue, which she noted was once the heart of Black wealth in America. “We had millionaires from one end of the street to another. All of these churches that you see were built by African Americans who had just come out of slavery.

“So this is where we we drew our strength. This is where Dr King was brought up. People think that it’s a surprise for Atlantans but it’s not because Atlanta has been known to birth and to develop leadership.”

Johnson, 54, has heard Warnock preach at the church. “He can break it down intellectually but when it comes to talking about the issues that impact our community, social justice issues, homelessness, health care issues, police reform, he comes in the tradition of the Baptist Church, which is passionate, engaged, he challenges people to think about who are you? If you say that you are this, what does that mean?”

Opposite the church a sign announces the Martin Luther King Jr National Historical Park. Beside it is King’s tomb, surrounded by a reflection pool near an eternal flame. In contrast to the unfolding drama in election offices, the memorial was silent and still on Tuesday night.

Warnock’s staff were watching the count anxiously at a campaign office and bar behind the church, which is in the former district of Congressman John Lewis, another civil rights hero who died last summer. Ifeanyichukwu “Chuke” Williams, 24, co-owner of a nearby clothing store and recording studio, said: “There is definitely a connection there: it’s in the ether. In a way Warnock is taking up the mantle, taking up the reins, trying to be the change.”

Jalen Smith, 26, a chef at a home for the elderly, added: “I didn’t vote but I’m familiar with the people and probably would have voted for Warnock. It’s good to see more Black politicians getting in and making a difference. He’s done a lot for the Black community and shown that he actually cares about people.”

Donald Trump’s latest statement about the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in Congress tomorrow is riddled with falsehoods.

For one thing, the president claims the vice-president “can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification. He can also decertify the illegal and corrupt results and send them to the House of Representatives for the one vote for one state tabulation.”

That is not true. No vice-president in US history has ever done such a thing. Although congressional Republicans plan to object to the certification of Biden’s victory tomorrow, they have no path to actually blocking the certification.

And as a fun bonus falsehood, Trump’s statement is also dated incorrectly.

One of the New York Times journalists who wrote the story about Mike Pence’s comments on the certification of Joe Biden’s victory said they stand by their report.

Trump denies report about Pence's comments on certification of Biden's win

Results continue to come in from Georgia, but the president has just released a statement about the electoral college vote count in Congress tomorrow.

Donald Trump was responding to this report from the New York Times, which says Mike Pence has informed the president that he does not have the power to block the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

The president pushed back against the report, claiming that he and Pence “are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act”.

“The New York Times report regarding comments Vice President Pence supposedly made to me today is fake news. He never said that,” Trump said in the statement released by his re-election campaign.

The president went on to recycle his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the November election, despite presenting no evidence to support those assertions.

Reality check: Biden won the presidential election; his victory will be certified by Congress tomorrow, and he will be sworn in on January 20.

Updated

The significance of Raphael Warnock’s potential victory in Georgia’s special Senate race is monumental.

If he wins, Warnock would be the first Black person to represent Georgia in the Senate, even though African Americans make up nearly a third of the state’s population.

Warnock would also be just the second African American elected to represent a southern state in the Senate since the end of Reconstruction.

The Guardian goes by the AP’s race calls, so we are not yet declaring a winner in either of the Georgia Senate runoff races.

With that major caveat in mind, it’s worth noting that Dave Wasserman, a widely respected editor of the Cook Political Report, is calling Georgia’s special Senate race for Democrat Raphael Warnock.

A fun fact for the Georgia races: if Jon Ossoff wins tonight, he will be the youngest senator since Joe Biden took office in 1973.

Biden was just 30 when he was first sworn in as a US senator from Delaware, and Ossoff is 33.

If Ossoff perfectly followed Biden’s career path, that would mean he would become president in 2069.

Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have now taken slight leads in the two runoff races, with about 69% of votes counted.

But things are still looking quite promising for Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who are outperforming Joe Biden’s November numbers in many counties.

Overall, it appears Democrats still hold the advantage in both races – and are thus more likely to control the Senate.

Updated

Top Georgia Republican blames Trump for disappointing results so far

Gabriel Sterling, a top Republican official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, blamed Donald Trump for the party’s potential losses tonight.

Sterling told CNN that, if David Perdue and/or Kelly Loeffler lose, then the blame for that will “fall squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions since November 3”.

Sterling, who has repeatedly refuted Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the November election, said the president’s evidence-free assertions sent a message to Republicans that their votes would not matter.

Sterling also said Trump was singlehandedly responsible for a “civil war” among Georgia Republicans since 3 November.

Updated

Republicans are not feeling too confident about Georgia right now, as this text from one Republican strategist to an NBC News reporter shows:

Democrats are feeling cautiously optimistic about the Georgia Senate runoffs, and they are thanking Stacey Abrams for her voter registration and turnout efforts in the state.

From writer Charlotte Clymer:

Abrams ran for governor in 2018, and she blamed her loss to Republican Brian Kemp on voter suppression in Georgia. Since then, she has done extensive work to get more Georgia Democrats registered to vote.

With the caveat that it’s still early and about half of Georgia votes still need to be counted, there are signs that Republicans are not hitting the level of turnout they need to overcome Democrats’ advantage from early voting.

If that trend holds, it could spur some soul-searching among Republicans, who don’t appear to perform as well when Donald Trump is not on the ballot.

To pivot away from Georgia for a moment, a spokesperson for George W Bush has announced that he and his wife, Laura Bush, will attend Joe Biden’s inauguration later this month.

“President and Mrs. Bush look forward to returning to the Capitol for the swearing in of President Biden and Vice President Harris,” spokesman Freddy Ford said in a tweet.

Ford added in another tweet, “I believe this will be the eighth inauguration they’ve had the privilege of attending – President Trump’s being the most recent – and witnessing the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy that never gets old.”

Besides Trump, who continues to peddle baseless claims of widespread fraud in the November election, Bush is the only living Republican president.

Updated

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson acknowledged that things are looking a bit bleak for Republicans in Georgia right now, as turnout in conservative-leaning counties trails turnout in liberal-leaning counties.

All polls in Georgia have now officially closed, a senior Republican official in the secretary of state’s office said. One polling location in Ware county was kept open an extra hour, until 8pm ET, because a traffic accident briefly blocked access to the site.

Updated

With nearly a third of the expected votes counted, the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman says the likeliest outcome at this point is a Democratic sweep of both Georgia Senate seats.

There are some early warning signs for Republicans in Georgia. In Ben Hill county, where vote-counting appears to be nearly completed, Republican David Perdue is running slightly behind Donald Trump’s performance in November, with lower turnout in the conservative-leaning county.

So Perdue is a bit worse off than Trump, who overall lost Georgia by about 12,000 votes in November. But there’s still plenty of counting left to do.

Election day turnout is so far exceeding expectations, which is good news for Republicans, who were counting on high turnout today.

But the election results so far have been slightly better for Democrats than expected, so it’s unclear whether Republicans will gain enough from today’s voting to pull ahead in the Senate races, as the New York Times’ Nate Cohn notes.

Updated

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports from Atlanta, Georgia:

The voting part of Georgia’s high-stakes election appears to have gone off relatively smoothly.

On Tuesday afternoon, Georgia election officials said the longest reported wait to vote was 20 minutes. I visited three polling places today – one in Atlanta and two in suburban Cobb county. There was no wait and all the voters reported being able to cast their ballots quickly.

The smoothness is notable in Georgia, a state where voters saw severely long lines to vote in the June primary and where there has been close scrutiny over voter suppression.

Now, there will likely be close scrutiny on the vote counting process, something Donald Trump and other Republicans have railed against since the November election.

Updated

Numbers update: With about 13% of ballots in, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are slightly ahead of their Republican opponents.

Warnock has 282,257 votes to Kelly Loeffler’s 251,190 votes, representing a 5.8-point advantage.

Ossoff has a similar edge over David Perdue. While Perdue has 264,871 votes, Ossoff has 288,960 votes, so the Democrat is leading by 4.4 points.

According to AP VoteCast, a survey of Georgia voters, about three-quarters of those who supported Republican Senate candidates in tonight’s runoff races do not believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected in November. (He was.)

The AP has more details on the survey:

The poll of voters measured how deeply President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud and misconduct have resonated with Republicans in the state.

Despite the courts, state officials and the Justice Department finding no evidence of widespread voter fraud, roughly 9 in 10 of the Republicans’ backers said they lacked confidence that votes in November’s presidential contest were accurately counted. Half say they have no confidence at all in the vote count. That’s roughly five times as many voters in November who said they had no confidence that votes would be counted accurately.

AP VoteCast surveyed more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate. The poll points to a partisan divide that has only worsened since November and suggests Biden may find it difficult to stitch the nation back together as it battles a resurgent pandemic and weakened economy.

While about 8 in 10 Republican voters approve of how Trump has handled the results of the election, Democratic voters almost universally disapprove. Most Democrats are very confident that votes were counted accurately.

The first results are trickling in from Georgia, and while it is very hard to draw any broad conclusions from this tiny slice of the electorate, it’s worth noting that Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff received almost the exact same number of votes from this batch.

As the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman points out, those numbers could signal that both seats will likely go to the same party tonight.

Shortly before polls closed in Georgia, Joe Biden reminded the state’s voters that anyone in line by 7 pm ET would still be able to cast a ballot.

In November, Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes, so both parties expect tonight’s races to be close. Every ballot cast could prove crucial.

Polls close in Georgia

It is 7 pm ET, so polls are now closed in Georgia, although anyone in line at a polling place will still be able to cast a ballot.

Results for the two Senate runoff races will soon start trickling in, so stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports from Atlanta, Georgia:

The last time Eva Bellamy voted, Barack Obama was on the ballot.

Bellamy, 40, was a little embarrassed to share that as she stood outside a church in Smyrna, just outside Atlanta, where she cast her vote on Tuesday.

“My business colleagues, they’re like ‘Did you vote?’ I’m not a good liar. I was like ‘You know what, they’re right. That’s God talking to me and saying ‘Hey you want me to do my part, I need you guys to do your part’,” she said. “I think it’s just important now with everything that’s going on in our country.”

At the First Baptist Church of Smyrna, where Bellamy voted, there were several voters who were still coming in to vote around 4.30pm, but no line to cast a ballot. Smyrna is in Cobb county, a swing area that will help determine the winner of the US senate runoff.

Caroline Magnum, 23, another voter, said she was surprised a Democratic presidential candidate had won in Georgia in November and it was energizing for the runoff.

“Everyone is really excited. Especially like because Georgia is not really a state that I think people feel like if they vote blue they’re going to get heard until now. So it’s really exciting ‘Oh my god I can actually come out here and make a difference’,” Magnum said.

Alex Ayala, 30, said she had been bombarded with ads for Jon Ossoff, one of the Democratic candidates in the runoff, on Hulu. “If you have Hulu with the ads, every commercial is like Jon Ossoff or Raphael Warnock,” she said. She later added she hoped Ossoff and Warnock would win Tuesday, saying the $600 Covid stimulus Republicans passed didn’t offer meaningful help for people struggling.

Even though Democrats have flipped Cobb county in recent years, Ayala said it was difficult to say whether her community was changing.

“The only thing that I’ve seen consistently is that I think that regarding law enforcement, I definitely think there’s a racial divide. I think at some point it’s always going to be like that,” she said.

Updated

Republicans are counting on high levels of voter turnout today to carry David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to victory.

Democrats appeared to have an advantage from early voting, largely because African Americans make up a slightly higher proportion of the electorate compared to November.

However, if Republicans can get more of their supporters to vote in person today, they will likely maintain control of both Georgia Senate seats.

It’s also important to keep in mind that Perdue and Loeffler will likely be leading after early results come in, as in-person ballots are generally reported first. The question is whether Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will pull ahead once more ballots are counted.

Trump looms large over Georgia Senate races

The president is a wild card in the Georgia races. So far Donald Trump’s main role has been to attack the integrity of the vote and spread conspiracy theories about the election on Twitter.

Republicans fretted that the release on Sunday of an audio recording of an hour-long conversation in which Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to overturn the presidential election result could both discourage Trump loyalists from voting, because Trump says the game is rigged; and put moderates off Trump and the Republican brand.

But an 11th-hour rally by Trump in Georgia on Monday night ensured that the president and his message would be center stage on election day.

In a statement this afternoon, Republican candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler encouraged their supporters to get out and vote, a potential sign that conservatives are worried about turnout after the president’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.

“We continue to encourage every Georgian to get out and vote and call, text, and email their friends, family, and neighbors to do the same,” Perdue and Loeffler said. “This generational election will be decided by the votes cast in the next few hours – no one should be sitting on the sidelines.”

Updated

Barack Obama offered this reminder to Georgia voters: if you are in line at a polling place by 7 pm ET, do not leave.

The former Democratic president said in a tweet tonight, “Georgia voters—If you’re in line before the polls close at 7 pm, stay there. You have the right to vote, no matter how long it takes. If you have questions, call the Georgia voter protection hotline at 1-888-730-5816. Let’s bring this home.”

Obama said in a tweet yesterday that “the stakes could not be higher” in Georgia, as the state’s voters determine which party will control the Senate.

Obama has also appeared in campaign ads for the two Democratic candidates in the runoff races, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports from Atlanta, Georgia:

After she cast her ballot on the chilly morning in Atlanta, Stephanie Aluko stood outside her polling place and noted how remarkable it was that the entire world was paying attention to her state.

“It made people in Georgia see how important it actually is to vote,” she said outside Antioch Baptist church, where a steady stream of voters were able to quickly cast their ballots. “If the whole world is looking at you and paying attention to you, suddenly, maybe your vote matters.”

The race is also a crucial test of a new emerging political power in Georgia. Long considered a conservative bastion, Joe Biden carried the state in November, the first Democrat to do so in nearly 30 years. The changing electorate is also being driven by efforts from Stacey Abrams and other grassroots groups, many led by Black women, to organize and mobilize voters of color.

“To be able to be part of this specific election is memorable because I feel like my vote actually counted this time,” said Gabi Strode, 27, who also voted at Antioch Baptist church on Tuesday morning. “It’s surreal, kind of.”

Georgia voters cast ballots to determine control of the Senate

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Georgia voters have been going to the polls all day to decide who will represent them in the Senate – and, by extension, which party will control the chamber.

If Republicans can win at least one of the two runoff races tonight, they will maintain control of the Senate. Democrats face a bigger challenge, as they would need to win both races to flip control of the Senate.

Voters stand in line before the doors open at Cobb County Community Center on January 5 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Voters stand in line before the doors open at Cobb County Community Center on January 5 in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Megan Varner/Getty Images

Republican David Perdue, whose Senate term technically ended on Sunday, is facing off against Democrat Jon Ossoff, and Republican senator Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat, is running against Democrat Raphael Warnock.

The results of the elections will have major implications for president-elect Joe Biden and his legislative agenda. If Democrats take control of the Senate, it will be much easier for Biden to get his proposals through Congress. But a Republican-controlled Senate would mean much of Biden’s agenda would likely be blocked.

In November, Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Georgia since 1992. But it’s unclear whether the traditionally conservative state is changing fast enough to send two Democrats to the Senate tonight.

The stakes could not be higher, so all eyes are on Georgia tonight. Polls will close in about 30 minutes, so stay tuned.

Updated

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