We are only 6 days into the New Year and history is already being made. If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, then you know about the highly anticipated Georgia Senate elections. This election was more important than others because control of the senate was at stake. Before we go on, let’s have a quick lesson on the structure of government and how it’s affected by the results of this particular election.
Our government is made of 3 branches: The Legislative Branch, which makes the laws, the Executive Branch, which carries out the laws, and the Judicial Branch, which enforces the laws. These 3 branches “check” each other so that supposedly, no one branch has more power than the others. The Legislative branch is comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Executive, the President, and the Judicial, the Supreme Court. Bills are introduced in the House, are voted on, and then are passed on to the Senate, which has the power to either pass those bills on to the President, or send them back to the House. The President in turn can either sign a bill into law, or veto it, sending it back to Congress to start the process over again.
Most senators were elected in November during the general election, but in Georgia, no candidate can advance through a primary or general election without earning at least 50% of the vote. On January 5th, millions of Georgians lined up to cast their ballots in this special run-off election, and it both incumbents (Sen. David Purdue, and Sen Kelly Loeffler), were defeated by Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, turning Georgia into a blue state for the first time in a decade. With both wins, Democrats and Republicans each have 50 seats. But wait, there’s more, because to have control over the Senate, a party must have 51 seats. So where is the extra seat coming from? Let’s have a quick quiz? Who is the President of the Senate? If you answered “The Vice President of the U.S.”, then you are correct! In this case, Vice President Elect would be the tie breaker vote, giving the Democrats an edge.
This is an impressive moment in history, as a Black and man of Jewish heritage are elected in the same election cycle. Now the real work begins.
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