Democratic Senate candidate in the United States Jon Ossoff of Georgia speaks with supporters during a rally on November 15, 2020 in Marietta, Georgia. Ossoff faces U.S. Sen. David Purdue (R-GA) in one of two Jan. 5 qualifiers in the U.S. Senate in Georgia.
Jessica McGowan | Getty Images
Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue in one of Georgia’s two Senate qualifiers, NBC News reported Wednesday, sealing his party’s control over Congress and the White House.
The projection of the race came when riots in support of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building after urging supporters at a rally to march in Congress. The attack on the legislature delayed the formal countdown to the Electoral School, which dozens of Republicans defied at Trump’s insistence, when lawmakers evacuated the building.
Democrat Raphael Warnock is expected to defeat Republican Party Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the second round of the state, a special election to serve in the Senate until 2022. The victories established a 50-50 division in the Senate, which gave Democrats a narrow majority with the vice president — Select Kamala Harris ’tiebreaker vote.
Democrats will have unified control of Capitol Hill and the White House for at least the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s term. Biden may pursue a broader agenda on issues such as coronavirus relief, health care and infrastructure. His candidates for cabinet seats and court seats will also have easier access to the Senate.
In declaring victory Wednesday morning, Ossoff, 33, thanked Georgia voters for “the trust and confidence you have placed in me.” He called on the Senate to propose “beating this virus and precipitating economic relief on the people of our state and the American people.” He cited health care, infrastructure and equal rights as his other priorities in Washington.
Ossoff will become the youngest member of the Senate. He and Warnock, who will become Georgia’s first African-American senator and the third incumbent black senator, sealed the first Democratic Senate majority since 2014.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., advanced his party’s agenda in the Senate by pushing for more coronavirus relief Wednesday.
“As the majority leader, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will have a partner who is prepared, willing and able to help achieve a future agenda and offer bold help and change to the American people,” he say in a statement.
Speaking to reporters later Wednesday morning, Schumer said “one of the first things I want to do when our new senators are seated” is to approve $ 2,000 direct for coronavirus aid. The Senate did not pass the independent measure, which backed President Donald Trump, before the by-elections, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not push for the vote.
Both Warnock and Ossoff seemed to win by a larger margin than Biden when they took Georgia in November.
Perdue, 71, sought a second term in the Senate (technically he has not been a senator since Sunday, when the previous Congress ended). The race collapsed when the Republican failed to get 50% of the vote against investigative filmmaker Ossoff in the November election.
According to reports, a wave of Perdue stock transactions caused regulators to probe their investments and Ossoff to declare it a “scam”. The Republican has said a financial advisor conducted the operations.
Ossoff has also claimed that Perdue did not respond to the outbreak, which killed more than 350,000 people in the United States. In the final days of the runoff, the Democrat pressured the then-senator to support direct payments of $ 2,000 as part of the year-end coronavirus relief package.
Perdue later backed the cash deposits while President Donald Trump pushed them. He has also promoted his vote for the $ 900 billion bailout plan, which was developed after Congress let the pandemic-era financial lives expire for months.
Perdue has supported Trump’s effort to nullify Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. The president has alleged, but failed to prove through dozens of lawsuits, that systemic fraud is costing the election in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Perdue cannot vote Wednesday on the certification of the votes of the Electoral College in Congress.
Ossoff insisted that the tables on Biden’s agenda, including a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour and a public health option, could be difficult to achieve unless Democrats gain control of the Senate.
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