GEORGIA SWEEP
Democrats now hold Senate
Democrats will have undivided control of Washington after they triumphed in the two critical Senate runoff races in Georgia — potentially clearing the way for President-elect Joe Biden’s leftleaning legislative agenda.
Jon Ossoff, 33, unseated Republican Sen. David Perdue to become the youngest US senator in 40 years, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock was declared a winner around 2 a.m. Wednesday over one-term Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
Both Democrats won by slim margins. Warnock led Loeffler by 64,488 votes with more than 4.4 million ballots cast and Ossoff was ahead of Perdue by 27,075 votes with 98 percent of returns in. Each made history. Warnock — pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached — becomes the first black senator in Georgia’s history. Ossoff will be the state’s first Jewish senator and the youngest member of the upper chamber since 1972, when Joe Biden was elected to a Delaware Senate seat at age 29.
Democrats will now control the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time since Barack Obama’s win in 2008.
Tuesday’s victories create a 50-50 tie in the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris set to be the deciding vote come Jan. 20.
The Democratic majority means Mitch McConnell will be unseated as majority leader in favor of the current minority leader, New York’s Chuck Schumer.
“It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate,” Ossoff said Wednesday.
Warnock said, “Georgia, we made history. I am forever grateful. Joy comes in the morning.”
Both races came down to the wire, with Democrats getting a boost from counties surrounding Atlanta, including DeKalb, a largely blue stronghold outside Atlanta that reported nearly 172,000 early in-person votes, which turned both Republican leads into losses.
Longtime GOP consultant Ed Rollins said the Democrats had their act together in Georgia and the Republicans didn’t.
“There was a great turnout of black voters. Republicans didn’t turn out in the numbers as when Trump was on the ballot,” said Rollins, who ran President Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign and managed a pro-Trump super PAC.
He partly blamed Trump’s obsessions with grievances over his own loss — particularly in Georgia — for the GOP losses.
“Trump’s angry-man message diminished everything else. It created confusion.” Rollins said.
“Their side was motivated and our side wasn’t. That’s what the autopsy will show.”