Jon Ossoff Wins Georgia Senate Runoff Handing Democrats Senate Control

On Wednesday TV networks declared Jon Ossoff as the winner of the second U.S. Senate from Georgia, giving the Democratic Party control of both chambers of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade.

Ossoff’s and Rev. Raphael Warnock‘s victories caused Senate control to flip. Warnock and Ossoff will respectively be the first Black and Jewish senators to represent Georgia.

“At this moment of crisis, as Covid-19 continues to ravage our state and our country, when hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, millions have lost livelihoods, Georgia families are having difficulty putting food on the table — fearing foreclosure or eviction, having difficulty making ends meet — let’s unite now to beat this virus and rush economic relief to the people of our state and to the American people,” Ossoff said on Wednesday.

The Senate’s party split will be 50-50 with the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking tie votes.

After no Georgia U.S. Senate candidate received 50% of the vote in November, the races turned to two runoffs. GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue made the choice to support the President’s false claims about voter fraud.

Warnock and Ossoff campaigned on ending the coronavirus crisis in order to reopen the economy. They pushed for debt-free public college and a new Voting Rights Act and attacked the Republican senators for their multimillion-dollar stock transactions during the pandemic, alleging that they profited off of them.

Progressives are looking at how Democrats should use their newfound power, advocating for the Senate to “go nuclear,” which would end the requirement that most legislation obtain 60 votes to advance.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that “one of the first” bills he’d like to pass as Senate majority leader would provide $2,000 stimulus checks to help Americans suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently blocked this bill despite President Donald Trump‘s support for enhanced aid.

“Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now,” said Biden in a statement. “On Covid-19, on economic relief, on climate, on racial justice, on voting rights and so much more.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) tweeted on Wednesday that “the movement” to end cash bail, abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and support black lives “organized to deliver” Congress and the White House. “It’s time we deliver for them,” she said.