Democrats take reins of divided Senate
New Georgia senators tip the balance
WASHINGTON – Democrats prepared to take control of the Senate on Wednesday after two of their newest members, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, were set to be sworn in late in the afternoon.
The two new Democrats will give the chamber a 50-50 split, which effectively gives Democrats the majority because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is the tie-breaking vote.
Harris, who resigned from her Senate seat this week, is set to be replaced by Democrat Alex Padilla. He also was to be sworn in Wednesday, according to a Senate source.
Ossoff, 33, becomes the youngest member of the Senate since then-u.s. Sen. Joe Biden and the first Jewish person from Georgia to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Warnock, who unseated Republican Kelly Loeffler, will similarly make history. The pastor, who served at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church – where Martin Luther King Jr. served before his assassination – will be the first Black senator to represent Georgia and the 11th Black senator in U.S. history.
Ossoff and Warnock sat nearby at Biden’s inauguration. “This is an affirmation of the democratic process in the United States, the peaceful transfer of power,” Ossoff said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting down to work and delivering the kind of investment in public health and vaccine distribution and the direct economic relief that people send us here to fight for,” Ossoff added.
The Democratic lean will allow Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to become the new majority leader after serving four years as the minority leader.
Schumer already outlined a clear agenda for the chamber, starting with three major priorities: approving President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, passing additional COVID-19 relief and President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
The New York Democrat has also made addressing college debt, immigration reform, voting rights and climate change centerpieces of the chamber’s agenda over the next Congress.
While Democrats will control the Senate, House and White House, the margins are so slim that far-reaching legislation isn’t likely to pass in Biden’s first years in office. The Democrats lost more than a dozen House seats in the last election.