Ossoff’s victory and that of fellow Georgia Democrat, Rev. Raphael Warnock, overturns the Senate and gives elected President Joe Biden the power to introduce potentially comprehensive, liberal legislation and pass cabinet appointments without Republican support. The division of the Senate party will be 50-50, while Kamala Harris, under-elected vice-president, will break the votes.
Warnock, the senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Ossoff will be the first black and Jewish senators to represent Georgia, respectively.
“In this moment of crisis, while Covid-19 continues to destroy our state and our country, as hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, millions have lost their livelihoods, and Georgia families are struggling to put food on the table – for fear of neglect or eviction. , ‘struggling to make ends meet – let’s now unite to defeat this virus and accelerate economic relief for the people of our state and the American people,’ Ossoff said earlier Wednesday before CNN’s projection.
After no Georgia Senate candidate received 50% of the vote in November, the race turned into two runways with Senate control at stake. While Ossoff and Warnock ran on a unity ticket, Trump refused to concede his own loss, causing a fight within the Republican Party and disillusioning some of his supporters, who believed his false claims that the vote was impeccable.
Trump’s continued crackdown on Republican officials responsible for the election has put two GOP senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, under pressure to make a choice: Join the president in overthrowing the democratic result or to lose the Trump supporters.
Despite three versions and no evidence of widespread fraud, Loeffler and Perdue decided to join the president in protesting against the certification of Congress over the results of the election college on Wednesday in a final, misleading dedication to Trump -supporters.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime Republican strategist from Georgia. “Clearly, the distractions and side effects affected the effect.”
Progressives are already looking at how Democrats should use their newfound power, and are urging the Senate to ‘get nuclear’ and eliminate the filibuster, which requires most legislation to get 60 votes to promote, to a to succeed more ambitious agenda. The Democratic leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, on Wednesday evaded a question as to whether his caucus would lower the threshold to a simple majority vote, saying that it was united in a “big, daring change” and that he would discuss best ways to get it done. . “
He said “one of the first” bills he would like to pass as Senate leader would offer $ 2,000 stimulus checks to help Americans suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, led by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. , recently blocked despite President Donald Trump’s support for improved aid. Democratic senators, who have been in the minority for six years, are now evaluating how to use their hammer in various committees to address the health and economic crises.
“Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want to take action on the crises we face, and they want it now,” Biden said in a statement. “About Covid-19, about economic relief, about climate, about racial justice, about voting rights and so much more.”
Schumer has a small margin to balance mistakes between the priorities of the left and politically defenseless.
Democrats recognize the intraparty struggle to come. Angus King, an independent senator from Maine who joins the Democrats, told CNN that he is “very reluctant” to eliminate the filibuster, but looks forward to changing the rules to discourage its “abuse.”
Montana Democratic senator Jon Tester, a moderate who faces a 2024 election in his red state, said Wednesday he hopes the filibuster will stay to encourage bipartisanship.
“Legislation from two parties tends to stand the test of time,” Tester said.
But on the left, Schumer wants to get rid of it so House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and the Senate can pass their long-awaited wish list. Massachusetts Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley tweeted on Wednesday that “the movement” to end cash bail, the abolition of immigration and customs enforcement and support of black lives, was “organized to deliver” Congress and the White House. “It’s time we delivered for them,” she said.
A Senate-led Senate can also confirm Biden’s nominees without Republican support, enabling the new government to vent its cabinet views and revamp the conservative massive gains on the judiciary over the past four years.
‘Of course with democratic control [of the Senate]”Joe Biden’s ability to move nominations forward will be easier,” Schumer said.
Perdue and Loeffler entered some benefits in the aftermath of the Senate. Loeffler, one of the richest members of Congress, spent tens of millions on her race, while Perdue, a former senator and former CEO of Fortune 500, earned more than 88,000 votes than the 33-year-old Ossoff two months ago. ago.
Warnock and Ossoff campaigned for an end to the coronavirus crisis, which infected more than 20.8 million Americans and killed at least 354,000 people, to reopen the economy. They are campaigning for debt-free public college and a new Voting Rights Act. And they attacked the Republican senators for their multimillion-dollar shares during the pandemic, claiming that they were benefiting from it. The senators deny any wrongdoing.
But Loeffler and Perdue’s campaigns were quickly undermined by Trump’s attacks on the Democratic result. Trump recently put private pressure on Foreign Secretary Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss in Georgia, a state that has won every GOP presidential candidate since 1996 has. Raffensperger, a Republican, refused.
Perdue and Loeffler tried to circumvent the intra-party struggle by focusing their remarks on their democratic opponents.
Perdue’s closing message was riddled with attacks and said in a minute-long video that if Republicans lose, undocumented immigrants will not vote, Americans’ private health insurance will be “taken away” and Democrats will pack up the Supreme Court and defend the police. .
“We win Georgia, we save America,” Perdue said to the camera.
But Warnock and Ossoff objected that they would “demilitarize” rather than defend the police, create a legal route for undocumented immigrants, and support a public option to reduce the number of uninsured. None of the Democratic candidates has pleaded guilty to adding judges to the court.
“Kelly Loeffler spends tens of millions of dollars to scare you,” Warnock said in an ad. “She’s trying to scare you for me because she’s scared of you. Afraid that you understand how she used her position in the Senate to enrich herself and others like her. Afraid that you will realize that we can do better . “
Now Democrats will face the question of how far they will follow the Trump administration. They celebrated their quick turnaround of happiness on Wednesday after being out of power for so long.
“I think we’re going to do great things,” Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said in Ohio. “I think the overwhelming number of Democrats are pointing it all in the same direction. Some faster than others, but all in the same direction.”
This story was updated on Wednesday with additional developments.
CNN’s Lauren Fox and Manu Raju contributed to this report.