With Decisive Senate Wins in Georgia, Democrats gain control of the US Senate.

Jorge A. Bañales | EFE
Reverend Raphael Warnock will make history as the first African-American Senator from Georgia. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Washington-The Democrats won control of the United States Senate on Wednesday thanks to the victories of their two candidates in the second round of the elections in Georgia, which President Donald Trump had proposed as a referendum on his management.

These victories for the blue party were confirmed the same day that supporters of Republican Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington while the joint session was being held to ratify the Electoral College votes in the last presidential election.

After the victory of the Reverend Raphael Warnock was confirmed on Tuesday night, thus becoming the first African-American senator from Georgia, media projections on Wednesday declared fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff the winner over his Republican rival, David Perdue.

The second round of elections in Georgia, which would normally have been a matter of importance to mostly just the state, turned into a dispute with national consequences in which both Trump himself and the president-elect, Joe Biden, participated.

Thanks to these victories, both very tight results, Biden will be able to have control of both houses of Congress for at least the first two years in office, thus allowing him to advance his policies without the obstruction of the Republican Party.

Warnock, 51, is a Baptist pastor at Abenezer Church in Atlanta, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, was once co-pastor.

In his election, Warnock obtained 50.6% of the votes and defeated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, who received 49.4% of the vote, while Ossoff obtained 50.32% of the votes against 49.68% of his rival.

Until this second electoral round, which was reached because none of the candidates achieved 50% of the votes in the first, the US Senate was composed of 49 Democratic seats and 50 for the Republicans.

With the victory of Ossoff, who at 33 will be the youngest senator since Biden came to the Senate in 1972, the Democrats are tied for seats with the Republicans in the Upper House; the decisive vote will correspond to Vice President Kamala Harris, in her capacity as Speaker of the Senate.

Neither of the two Republican candidates has admitted defeat on the grounds that thousands of votes cast by members of the Armed Forces stationed abroad which were yet to be counted on Tuesday.

Although the two Democrats have already declared themselves winners, votes from sectors in the cities of Atlanta and Savannah that are more favorable to the Democrats remain to be counted.

In proclaiming his victory, Ossoff, “humbly thanked the people of Georgia” for electing him to the Senate.

Perdue, whose term in the Senate expired last Sunday, thanked the participation of, “everyone who voted, everyone who has put their faith and trust in our democracy to obtain the representation we deserve, whether voting for me or against me.”

Before Ossoff’s victory was confirmed, President-elect Joe Biden congratulated Warnock and expressed his optimism about the possible victory of the other candidate.

Biden, 77, who will take office on January 20, also congratulated, “the people of Georgia, who came out to vote again in unprecedented numbers, just as they did in November, to elect two new senators, demand action and demand that elected leaders come out of the gridlock.”

The president-elect stated that he is, “as determined today as he was yesterday to make the effort to work with people from both parties, at the federal, state and local levels, to accomplish great things for our nation.”

Trump, for his part, took to Georgia his claims that in the November 3 presidential election he was the victim of fraud, a complaint, without evidence, that he reiterated at a pre-election rally.

The outgoing leader obtained 74.2 million votes compared to 81.2 million for the Democratic candidate.

“After the last four years, after the election and after the electoral certification process today in Congress, the time has come to turn the page,” Biden said about it.

“Americans demand action and want unity,” he added.

Photo Caption: Reverend Raphael Warnock will make history as the first African-American Senator from Georgia. Photo Credit: Public Domain

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