Warnock, Ossoff wins in Ga. hand Dems control of Senate

Democrats narrowly wrested control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans after winning a pair of high-stakes runoff races in Georgia, paving the way for President-elect Joe Biden’s party to set the legislative agenda for at least his first two years in office.

Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock were projected by the Associated Press and other major news outlets to defeat Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively, delivering Democrats the two Senate seats they needed to force a tie in the upper chamber that could be broken by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Democrats will now control both chambers of Congress and the White House, clearing a Republican roadblock that could have stymied Biden’s Cabinet picks and his legislative agenda.

“It looks like we will emerge from (Tuesday’s) election with Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, and of course I’m pleased that we will be able to work with Speaker Pelosi and a Majority Leader Schumer,” Biden, who won Georgia by roughly 12,000 votes in the presidential election, said in a statement.

“But I’m also just as determined … to try to work with people in both parties — at the federal, state, and local levels — to get big things done for our nation,” Biden continued, stressing both the importance of additional coronavirus relief and of seating his Cabinet picks “as soon as possible” after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Warnock, 51, the senior pastor of the Atlanta church were Martin Luther King Jr. preached, will become his state’s first Black senator.

“We were told that we couldn’t win this election, but tonight we proved that with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible,” Warnock said in an emotional livestreamed address before his race was called Wednesday.

Ossoff, 33, a former congressional aide and journalist who will become the state’s first Jewish senator, said, “Whether you were for me, or against me, I’ll be for you in the U.S. Senate.”

The twin Democratic victories represent as much a shift in Georgia politics as they deliver a blow to President Trump, who took heat from some GOP members Wednesday while Democrats celebrated.

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters, “It turns out that telling the voters that the election was rigged is not a great way to turn out your voters.”