Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are Georgia's newest Democratic senators. photo courtesy of The New York Times
The state of Georgia makes history in the 2020 election cycle.
The events surrounding the November 2020 election will go down in history, likely as one of the most memorable elections in American history. People all over the country will remember where they were as Joe Biden was declared the 46th President of the United States and where they were when mobs of people stormed the U.S. Capitol. As the deadly COVID-19 virus raged through the country, a series of unprecedented, unlikely, and historic events unfolded around the election. The Georgia election was no exception to these developments.
As election results streamed in on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, it became clear that the citizens of the US would not know the outcome of the election for days. Several states had to send votes to be recounted while others ended up in runoffs. On November 7th, the Associated Press declared Joe Biden to be the 46th president of the United States. This was a huge deal for Democrats following four years of a Trump presidency and a Republican-controlled Senate. Still, even with a Democratic win, a lot of questions were still left unanswered—specifically, who would control the Senate? Leaving this question unanswered was one state in particular: Georgia.
The state of Georgia has an election system a little different from the rest, one that was built on the foundation of the Jim Crow era. In order to win a primary or general election, a Georgia candidate must win more than 50% of the votes. If this is not won, then the two candidates with the most votes go into a runoff election, something that was observed just this past election cycle. This system began in the early 1960s and many saw and still see it as a way to oppress the political power of the Black community. This system was believed to keep black voters from grouping behind a certain candidate while the white voters split their support among several. Whether or not this was the intention of Georgia’s runoff system, it still left two Senate seats undecided well past election day.
The runoffs came down to two races: one between Reverend Raphael Warnock and incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler and the other between Jon Ossoff and incumbent senator David Perdue. On January 5th, 2021, Warnock and Ossoff were declared the winners, tipping the Senate in the Democrats’ favor and making Georgia election history.
Raphael Warnock is a lot of things. He is a Georgia native, a doctor of philosophy, an ordained minister, and the first Black Georgia senator. Warnock grew up in public housing as one of 12 siblings. He was raised in the Baptist church and was the youngest pastor to be chosen at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Political activism surrounded his early years in the church, leading Warnock to have an impressive political history. He was the chair for the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan organization focused on voter registration, and was part of the campaign to expand Medicaid. His biggest focuses are on expanding healthcare for all and giving hard-working people a better living wage. His campaign was endorsed by organizations like Planned Parenthood and Naral as well as the Obamas.
Jon Ossoff also made Georgia election history when he won his race against David Perdue. Ossoff is the first Jewish Georgia senator. Like Warnock, he is also a Georgia native. He started his career in politics early on during high school when he interned with the late John Lewis. From there, he graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and went on to get a Masters of Science degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics. He worked as a national security aid and an investigative journalist before running for a seat in Georgia’s Sixth district in 2017, where he lost by a 3% margin. This loss did not discourage him from running again in 2020, where he led a successful campaign endorsed by people like Stacey Abrams and the Obamas. His biggest focuses are on great health care, clean energy and infrastructure, and lower taxes for working families and small businesses.
The Georgia runoff election may not seem out of the ordinary, but when you look at the details, it becomes clear that it is pretty historical. Georgia elected their first ever Black and Jewish senators. This was also the first time since 1996 that the state put a Democratic senator in office, let alone two. Georgia voted blue across the board and flipped the presidential election for the first time since Clinton beat Bush in 1992. This election brings along a huge victory for the Democrats. With the elections of Warnock and Ossoff, the Democrats now have a majority in the Senate as well as the House…and of course, the Oval Office.
