Press in Germany, South Korea, Qatar and Russia reads Ossoff's victory in Georgia as the defeat of a Trump candidate

The first media projections in the night to 4 November 2026 see Democrat Jon Ossoff as the winner of the Senate election in Georgia. Media in several countries put a common reading first: a Trump-backed Republican loses in a state that Trump won in 2024. At the same time, some urge caution. These are projections, not an official final result.

South Korea: a signal for the Senate, but no seat gained. The business newspaper Financial News (4 November, 2:02 CET, correspondent Lee Byung-chul in New York) sees in its headline a “green light” for the Democrats to retake the Senate. As background it cites Ossoff's large lead in fundraising and his criticism of Trump as the core of the campaign. The conservative newspaper Dailian (2:01 CET, Jung In-gyun) writes that the Republicans' attempt to take the seat has failed. It adds soberly that the Democrats had only held an existing seat and had not gained one. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with about 66 percent of the votes counted, it stood at 56 to 44 percent.

Qatar: a Trump ally loses. Al Jazeera (Evan Semones, 4 November) calls Republican Mike Collins a “staunch Trump ally”. The broadcaster recalls that Georgia voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and narrowly for Trump in 2024. According to AP, with 38 percent of the votes counted, Ossoff was ahead by 63 to 29 percent.

Russia: state media report factually, with Trump at the center. The state agency RIA Novosti (1:52 CET) headlines that Ossoff has been re-elected after overtaking a Trump supporter. It cites the projection by Decision Desk HQ and gives Ossoff's campaign spending as over 105 million dollars. The state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta (0:43 CET, Roman Otradnov) wrote even before the results that the election is also being called a referendum on Trump. As reasons for dissatisfaction it cites high prices and the war in Iran.

Germany and Italy: warning about early numbers. The live blog of the Tagesspiegel (as of 1:59 CET) calls Georgia an important seat in the fight for the Senate majority. On early Democratic leads in other states, it writes that it is “much too early”: early and mail-in votes, which Democrats tend to use more, are usually counted first. The live blog of Il Fatto Quotidiano likewise calls early numbers from Indiana still very incomplete.

So far, a contrast between the countries shows more in tone than in substance. Chinese state media had not noticeably commented on the first results by about 2:20 CET. No statements by governments on the results had been found by then. Georgia is not one of the seven core races; the tally is under Senate. When which results come in is under counting and election night.