Drudge congratulates Warnock, says Ann Coulter should have been GOP candidate

Matt Drudge, the pioneering conservative blogger turned critic of President Trump, congratulated Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock (D) and suggested pundit Ann Coulter would have fared better than Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in Georgia’s Senate runoff election.

“Congratulations #Warnock on the historic win! GOP should have run the real @AnnCoulter not someone who was trying to ridiculously look and sound like her #Loeffler,” Drudge tweeted Tuesday night, shortly before Warnock was projected the winner of the race. He also included side-by-side images of Coulter, a conservative commentator, and Loeffler.

Loeffler received the backing of Republicans and President Trump ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election. Last September, she described herself as “more conservative than Attila the Hun” in a campaign ad ahead of the Nov. 3 special election in which she faced several candidates, including Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.). Collins, a vocal House ally of the president, criticized her at the time, particularly over stock sales ahead of the coronavirus outbreak. The Senate Ethics Committee, however, cleared her of any wrongdoing in connection with the trades.

Drudge, a major contributor to the early online conservative media ecosystem, became increasingly critical of Trump in 2020, with the president frequently firing back. Trump has blasted Drudge on Twitter and repeatedly promoted alternative conservative news aggregators. Drudge, meanwhile, mocked Trump with the headline “You’re Fired” after President-elect Joe Biden was projected the winner of the election in November.

Warnock’s defeat of Loeffler makes him the first Black senator in Georgia history. While the state’s other Senate runoff race has yet to be called, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff currently leads incumbent Republican David Perdue, whose Senate term ended on Sunday. If Ossoff wins the seat, the Senate will be split evenly, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking ties.