In this March 20, 2020, file photo, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Georgia, waits to speak in a television interview on Capitol Hill in Washington. Loeffler was appointed to the U.S. Senate last year on the hope that she would help the GOP hold on to moderates uncomfortable with the party’s right turn under President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
In Georgia, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock have advanced to a Jan. 5 runoff in the special election for Loeffler’s Senate seat.
They’re the top two finishers in a crowded field that also included Republican Rep. Doug Collins. But no candidate was able to get the 50% threshold needed in order to win outright.
Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman, was appointed last year to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson. Warnock is pastor of the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Warnock is trying to become Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator.
President Joe Biden has met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House. Johnson was joined by Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as they discussed Biden's request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.
The new leader of one of the chambers of Congress that will certify the winner of next year's presidential election helped spearhead the attempt to overturn the last one, raising alarms that Republicans could try to subvert the will of the voters if they remain in power despite safeguards enacted after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.