Georgia GOP Sen. Perdue quarantines ahead of runoff after COVID exposure


Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) is quarantining after close exposure to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, his campaign said Thursday.
Perdue entered quarantine on Thursday and has tested negative for the virus, campaign officials said. The news came just days ahead of his Tuesday runoff election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, who led in a recent poll. Fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler also faces a runoff against the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.
More than 2.8 million people have voted early so far, and heavy turnout in Democrat-held congressional districts has given Ossoff and Warnock an early edge. If Democrats win both seats their party will control the Senate, which will be split evenly at 50-50 with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. Republicans only need to win one seat to retain control of the Senate.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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