Lincoln Project sets sights on ‘QAnon Kelly Loeffler’ as GOP Georgia Senate seat heads to run-off vote

'We’ll see you soon,’ the anti-Trump Republican group tweeted

Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock face a 5 January run-off in the special election for Ms Loeffler’s Georgia Senate seat.

They finished as the top two in a crowded field that included congressman Doug Collins, another Republican. Mr Collins stepped aside in favour of Ms Loeffler.

Anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project, which has set its sights beyond President Donald Trump on his acolytes on Capitol Hill, tweeted: “QAnon Kelly Loeffler, we’ll see you soon.”

Senator Loeffler had previously enthusiastically accepted an endorsement from controversial candidate and QAnon conspiracy theory advocate Marjorie Taylor Greene in a bid to win right-wing voters over to her candidacy.

Defending her acceptance of Ms Greene’s support Ms Loeffler said: “No one in Georgia cares about this QAnon business."

The Lincoln Project also posted celebratory tweets anticipating the expected defeat of Senator Martha McSally in Arizona by astronaut Mark Kelly, and the confirmed loss by Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was beaten by former governor John Hickenlooper.

The group has been lauded for its ads over the 2020 election campaign, which have been both brutal attack ads on individuals in the president’s sphere, or inspirational “get out the vote” videos.

As neither Ms Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat in 2019 to replace retiring Senator Johnny Isakson, nor Mr Warnock won 50 per cent of the total vote, the run-off election is required.

Mr Warnock is the pastor of the Atlanta church where Reverend Martin Luther King Jr preached. Were he to win in January, he would be the first Black senator for the state.

Thanks partly to the backing of former President Barack Obama, Mr Warnock had a clear field on the Democratic side of the race, whereas Ms Loeffler and Mr Collins battled it out on the right.

Mr Warnock won 30.5 per cent of the vote, Ms Loeffler 27.2 per cent, and Doug Collins 21.2 per cent with 83 per cent of the vote counted .

Senator Loeffler won Ms Greene’s support because she is “the most conservative Republican in the race”.