Sen. David Perdue

WHITE COUNTY, Ga. — Republicans in White County gave incumbent Senators David Perdue and Kelly  Loeffler their overwhelming endorsement in the U.S. Senate runoff race Tuesday.

Perdue earned 83.72 percent of the vote to defeat Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff,  11,067 to 2,222. Loeffler outpolled Rev. Raphael Warnock by almost 9-1, winning 11,014 to 1,320.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler

Republicans were counting heavily on voters rural north and south Georgia counties like White, Lumpkin and Dawson to help them overcome a large Democrat vote in metropolitan counties like DeKalb, Fulton and Cobb.

When the White County vote was complete at about 9:30 p.m. Perdue and Loeffler held a razor thin margin state wide of about 1 percent.