WASHINGTON: Democrats seized control of the US Senate with dramatic election wins in Georgia to give Donald Trump’s party a crushing loss two weeks from the president’s exit and handing Joe Biden comprehensive power in Washington.
The Republican debacle in Georgia — sealed when Jon Ossoff was proclaimed the winner in the second of two Senate runoff races — came as Trump supporters furious about his election defeat launched a violent assault on the US Capitol, disrupting Congress’s session to affirm Biden’s victory and plunging Washington into chaos.
A defiant Trump, speaking to supporters at a street rally before the unrest, insisted that “we will never give up, we will never concede” defeat. By the end of his four-year term, Trump managed to lose the White House, the House of Representatives and now the Senate to Democrats.
The southern state that has leaned Republican for two decades has delivered a political stunner twice in two months: In November when Democrat Biden narrowly defeated Trump, then in the runoffs that ousted two sitting senators loyal to Trump.
The narrow and historic victories by documentary producer Ossoff, who at 33 becomes the youngest US senator since Biden himself took office in 1973, and Reverend Raphael Warnock, the first African American ever to represent Georgia in the Senate, will end divided government in Washington and give Biden a golden opportunity to get his legislative agenda onto the floor.
Warnock, 51, defeated Kelly Loeffler, a 50-year-old businesswoman appointed to the Senate in December 2019, while Ossoff, who becomes Georgia’s first Jewish senator, bested the 71-year-old David Perdue.
Although the Senate will be split exactly 50-50, Democrats will hold the power advantage because incoming Vice President Kamala Harris will serve as the tie-breaking vote.
Ending Republican rule in the Senate has major implications for the Biden administration, particularly in view of the fact that Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered fierce resistance to former president Barack Obama’s agenda.
Biden notably will be far more likely to get his cabinet nominees confirmed in the Senate. Democrats will also control what legislation makes it to the floor, and Biden has made clear his immediate priority is boosting relief for American families impacted by the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
