Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler conceded her Senate runoff to Senator-elect Rev. Raphael Warnock on January 7, a day after Warnock was named the projected winner.
Loeffler thanked her supporters for their efforts in a video and added she called Warnock to congratulate him.
It’s been a strange couple of days for Loeffler. Multiple news organizations called the runoff for Warnock early Wednesday morning. At the time, Loeffler wouldn’t concede and was expected to be one of the Republican lawmakers to challenge Biden’s election win. However after an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building, Loeffler said she wouldn’t support the effort.
By Wednesday night, it was evident she wouldn’t win the Senate runoff.
The University of Illinois graduate was a hardline supporter of Trump, blindly following him through many of his lies and debunked election claims like many other Republican lawmakers.
Many have credited players on the WNBA franchise Loeffler co-owns as the reason
she lost the Senate runoff. Last summer, Loeffler opposed the Black Lives Matter movement and the painting of the phrase on the court used in the WNBA playoff bubble.“What I see is politics coming into sports,” Loeffler said. “No one has asked politics to come into sports. Sports are about unifying people. People from all walks of life from all political views should be welcomed in sports and to cancel someone because they want to protect innocent
life; because they are fighting for the unborn; because they support the Second Amendment; because I support the constitutional rights that have been given to us by God? Why would that not fit as part of American sports culture? That should be a tenet of sports, is to welcome all views.”Before Loeffler’s comments, she had a 10 point lead on Warnock in the polls. Then the Atlanta Dream showed up to a playoff game sporting “Vote Warnock” t-shirts and posted the image on Twitter.
After the photo went viral, Warnock received a ton of support and a significant influx of cash. Warnock finished in first during the election in November 2020, but he didn’t receive 50% support, leading to the special election on Jan. 5. Jon Ossoff defeated David Perdue in the other runoff, giving Democrats full control of the White House and House of Representatives and the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.