The outgoing President Donald Trump’s Republican party was dealt a blow in Senate when Democrats won one hotly contested race in Georgia on Wednesday and got ahead in a second.
Raphael Warnock is projected to unseat Republican Kelly Loeffler. According to media, the other Democrat, Jon Ossoff, was leading against his Republican rival David Perdue by a thin margin.
According to Edison Research, Warnock was ahead of Loeffler by 1.2 percentage points, or about 50,000 votes, while Ossoff was leading Perdue by more than 12,000 votes.
Warnock has become first Democrat who has been elected to Senate from Georgia in 20 years.
Democrats must have to win both seats to take control of the Senate. The victory would put the upper house at par with 50 seats each and give Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, the tie-breaking vote. The party has a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
If Republicans hold one seat, they will effectively wield veto power over Biden. That means Republicans can jeopardise Biden’s initiatives in fields, such as economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, healthcare and criminal justice.
Warnock will be Georgia’s first Black senator, and Ossoff, at 33, the youngest member if he wins.
