Democratic United States Senate candidate Jon Ossoff from Georgia addresses his supporters at a rally on Nov. 15, 2020 in Marietta, Georgia. Ossoff takes on incumbent US Senator David Purdue (R-GA) in one of two Jan. 5 outcomes before the US Senate in Georgia.
Jessica McGowan | Getty Images
Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue in one of two Senate rounds in Georgia, NBC News predicted Wednesday, sealing his party’s control over Congress and the White House.
Projection into the race came when rioters backing President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol after urging supporters at a rally to march to Congress.
Democrat Raphael Warnock is expected to defeat GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler in the second round of the state, a special election that will serve in the Senate until 2022. – choose the casting vote of Kamala Harris.
Democrats will have joint control of Capitol Hill and the White House for at least the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s term. Biden can pursue a broader agenda on things like coronavirus control, healthcare and infrastructure. His cabinet and court-seat nominees will also find it easier to pass through the Senate.
When he announced the victory on Wednesday morning, 33-year-old Ossoff thanked voters in Georgia “for the trust you have placed in me”. He called on the Senate to “defeat this virus and provide economic aid to the people of our state and to the American people.” He cited health care, infrastructure, and equal rights as his other priorities in Washington.
Ossoff becomes the youngest member of the Senate. He and Warnock – who will become the first African-American senator from Georgia and the third sitting black senator – sealed the first majority in the Democratic Senate since 2014.
Senate leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., gave a sneak peek at his party’s agenda in the Senate by pushing for more coronavirus relief on Wednesday.
As Majority Leader, President-Elect Biden and Vice President Harris will have a partner who is ready, willing and able to help deliver a forward-looking agenda and bring aid and bold change to the American people, he said in a statement .
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, Schumer said, “One of the first things I want to do when our new senators sit down” is to approve $ 2,000 direct coronavirus aid payments. The Senate did not approve the standalone measure, which supported President Donald Trump, ahead of the second election, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not push for a vote.
Both Warnock and Ossoff seemed on track to win by bigger margins than Biden had in wearing Georgia in November.
Perdue, 71, was seeking a second term in the Senate (he’s not technically a senator since Sunday, when the previous Congress ended). The race ended in a second round when the Republican failed to clear 50% of the vote against investigative filmmaker Ossoff in the November election.
A flurry of Perdue stock trading early in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic would have prompted regulators to scrutinize his investments and Ossoff to call him a “scammer.” The Republican has said a financial advisor has executed the transactions.
Ossoff has also claimed that Perdue did not respond to the outbreak, which killed more than 350,000 people in the US. aid package.
Perdue later backed the cash deposits as President Donald Trump pushed for it. He has also voted in favor of the $ 900 billion bailout, which was developed after Congress let the pandemic-era financial lifelines expire for months.
Perdue has backed Trump’s attempt to nullify Biden’s 2020 victory. The president has claimed but failed to prove through dozens of lawsuits that systematic fraud cost him elections in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Perdue will not be able to vote on Wednesday on the certification of electoral college votes in Congress.
Ossoff ran by emphasizing that parts of Biden’s agenda, including a $ 15 an hour minimum wage and a public health option, could be difficult to pass unless the Democrats took control of the Senate.
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