By Josh Chang
As of late Wednesday afternoon, moments after Trump-supporting rioters violently stormed the Capitol of the United States, the Associated Press has called both Senate runoff elections in Georgia for the Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, ending six years of Republican control in the upper chamber. The wins just barely give Democrats the 50 seats they need, with ties broken by the Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church and Georgia’s first Black senator, defeated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, a staunch supporter of President Trump and the richest member of Congress. Loeffler, who was appointed in late 2019 by Georgia’s governor to fill a vacant seat, was marred by controversy regarding stock trades she made in February after receiving briefings on the coronavirus. Critics say she made a profit off of the pandemic while misleading the public. Similar allegations have been leveled against Republican Senator David Perdue, who lost re-election to Ossoff. Ossoff, a journalist, is the first Jew to be elected Senator in Georgia.
Georgia holds runoff elections in January when no candidate reaches more than 50% of the vote share in November. That occurred for both the standard and special Senate elections, setting up a long, expensive fight for control of the chamber. Those races came to a close on Tuesday, with voters across Georgia casting their ballots. The counting of those votes showed a slim but winning margin for both Democratic candidates who were buoyed by strong Black turnout.
Now that Democrats have completed a trifecta by winning the House, Senate, and Presidency, they will be tasked with governing at one of the most remarkable moments in American history. In the midst of a pandemic that continues to kill tens of thousands each week, a completely devastated economy, and now attempted insurrection at the Capitol, Democrats will need to rise to an extraordinary occasion and console a deeply divided nation. The steps they take in the coming weeks, months, and years will determine the path forward for this country, with vast consequences.
