Georgia Turning Blue? In Victory for Grassroots Organizers, Warnock Wins Senate Runoff; Ossoff Leads

Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate after Reverend Raphael Warnock won a special election over Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, while Democrat Jon Ossoff has a slim lead in his runoff against Republican Senator David Perdue.

If Ossoff wins his race, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats more power to pass President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

Reverend Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will become the first Black Democrat to ever represent a Southern state, as well as the first Black senator from Georgia and just the 11th Black senator in U.S. history.

Democracy Now! speaks with Anoa Changa, an Atlanta-based journalist who covers electoral justice and voting rights, who says the Democratic victory in the state is down to grassroots organizers. “Organizing and the amazing work that has been done by a broad coalition of multiracial, mutliethnic organizers across the entire state, from rural to urban to suburban communities, really is the true story of what has been happening in Georgia,” says Changa.

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