John Ossoff attributes close Georgia Senate race to Black voter turnout

Democratic Georgia Senate candidate Jon Ossoff said on Sunday that the close race in the Peach State was due to the turnout of Black voters in this year’s election.

“This was the closest Senate race in the country, Martha. And that really reflects the power of Black turnout here. The determination of Black voters in Georgia to make a change in this country,” Ossoff told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Georgia’s Black community has been hit the hardest by COVID-19, Georgia’s Black community is demanding access to affordable healthcare, demanding civil rights legislation, to secure criminal justice reform,” Ossoff said.

Georgia Democratic senatorial candidate Jon Ossoff tells @martharaddatz there’s “massive enthusiasm” for Joe Biden in Georgia amid Senate runoffs.

“We’re excited to be part of it. We recognize that these races in Georgia have national implications.” https://t.co/RzvHrua3iC pic.twitter.com/mP80PMFtSo

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 15, 2020

Ossoff is currently set to go up against Republican incumbent candidate David Perdue in a run-off race in January. The other Senate seat for Georgia will also be determined in a run-off race between incumbent Kelly Loeffler (R) and Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock. The results of these two elections will likely determine the balance of power in the Senate.

Raddatz noted that despite the runoff, Perdue did outrun Ossoff by about 90,000 votes. Ossoff stated that he was not worried about those numbers.

“It doesn’t worry me at all, Martha. First of all, we are currently organizing and running the largest voter registration and turnout effort in American history,” said Ossoff. “For example, there are 23,000 young people here in Georgia who will become eligible to vote just between the November election and this January 4th runoff and a decade of organizing. Much of this work, led by Stacey Abrams, has put the wind here in our sails here in Georgia. What we’re feeling for the first time in four years is hope.”

Many news outlets and public figures have attributed the surprising turnaround in Georgia to Abrams, a former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor. The work done through her organization, Fair Fight, to combat voter suppression has been credited with helping get 300,000 Georgia voters to the polls who had previously been purged.