Biden before Senate majority: Democrats will triumph in Georgia

Biden before majority in Senate
Democrats arguably triumph in Georgia

First Raphael Warnock, now apparently also Jon Ossoff: The US Democrats are heading for a double victory in the runoff elections for the two Senate seats of the state of Georgia. The Republicans would lose their last instrument to block federal politics in Washington.

In the runoff elections for two Senate posts in the US state of Georgia, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff has declared himself the winner. He thanked the people of Georgia for their trust, Ossoff said. He won the election. According to the US media, the Democrat Raphael Warnock had previously prevailed against the Republican Kelly Loeffler in the second run-off election in Georgia – this would mean that the Democrats of the US President Joe Biden would have the upper hand in both chambers of parliament until at least 2023.

The race has not yet been officially decided. According to the current count, 33-year-old Ossoff is ahead of the previous Republican incumbent David Perdue with 16,370 votes or 0.4 percentage points. Several thousand postal votes from abroad are expected by Friday, which could have a decisive impact on the result. In contrast to Warnock, the US media were initially reluctant to declare the runoff election in favor of Ossoff decided.

Can Biden rule?

So far, however, the Democrat has led one with a larger lead in the individual districts of the state than the newly elected US President Joe Biden in his surprising victory in Georgia in November. The electoral laws in the former republican stronghold stipulate that a loser in the election may demand a recount if the gap at the end of the count is less than half a percentage point.

The 33-year-old would be the youngest politician to serve in the U.S. Senate in the past 40 years. In his address, which was broadcast live, he thanked the voters for their trust. "I am honored by your support, your confidence, your trust and I look forward to serving you," said the democratic politician.

The extremely close result of this runoff election will decide whether the Republican Party of outgoing President Donald Trump will remain in the majority in the Senate or whether the Democrats will gain the upper hand there. With two democratic victories there would be a stalemate of 50 to 50 votes. Such a stalemate could then be resolved ex officio by the future Vice President Kamala Harris in favor of the Democrats – she is also President of the Senate.

Since the Democrats already have a majority in the House of Representatives – the other Chamber of Congress – they would in future have control of the entire Congress if they won the two Senate seats from Georgia. Biden could then implement reform projects, laws and personnel decisions much more easily.

Republicans lose a stronghold

The runoff election had become necessary because none of the applicants in Georgia could win an absolute majority in the congressional election held parallel to the presidential election in November. That alone was a surprise, because the state in the conservative south of the United States had been firmly in Republican hands for decades. With Warnock, it was the first time in 20 years that a Democrat managed to win a Senate post in Georgia. Biden's narrow victory in the state was the first success for a Democratic presidential candidate in Georgia in almost 30 years.

"We were told we couldn't win this election. But tonight we proved that anything is possible with hope, hard work and the people on our side," said Warnock, Georgia’s first black man in the Senate .

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