Both Republican candidates—in the special and regular election contests—are priced as most likely to win.
The Democrats face an uphill battle in the forthcoming Georgia Senate runoffs, according to a leading bookmaker. Republican candidates are priced as most likely to win in both the special and regular election contests scheduled for the new year, Betfair said. The balance of power in the Senate is now at a near tie for Democrats and Republicans, with the two runoffs set to define who controls the Senate from January. As it currently stands, Republicans have 50 seats to the Democrats’ 46. Independent senators, who caucus with Democrats, occupy the two remaining seats. In Georgia, as in nine other states, a candidate must achieve at least 50 percent of the vote to win, with the top two candidates left to face off in a subsequent election if this is not reached. David Perdue, the Republican incumbent, has 49.7 percent of the vote versus Democrat Jon Ossoff’s 48 percent (a difference of 86,000 ballots), according to Reuters, which uses data provided by Edison Research. With 99 percent of the votes counted, it is unlikely that Perdue will get the necessary votes to reach 50 percent.
