The significance of what happened Tuesday in Georgia can’t be downplayed. A win by both Democrats, if confirmed, not only shifts control of the Senate, it affirms the reality, long overdue, of the 21st century south. It is also especially rewarding for those who have long been segregated and relegated to a lower strata of American society.
A Black man and a Jew winning election to the US Senate in the deep south is evocative of the old civil rights alliance in a way I find … emotionally resonant.
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) January 6, 2021
I know it hasn’t been called for Ossoff yet. But I’m starting to get unexpectedly emotional at the the idea of a Black man and a Jewish man, both protégés of John Lewis, walking into the United States Senate as the elected representatives of the Deep South state of Georgia.
— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) January 6, 2021
Today Rev. Raphael Warnock said:
Georgia is in such an incredible place when you think about the arc of our history, we are sending an African-American pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. served and also Jon Ossoff, a young Jewish man, the son of an immigrant to the U.S. senate. This is the reversal of the old southern strategy that sought to divide people.Â
Ossoff recently acknowledged this as well. While campaigning in Macon, he said:
“Think about how far we’ve come, Macon, that your standard bearers in these races are the young Jewish journalist, son of an immigrant, and a Black pastor who holds Dr. King’s pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church,”Â
Toldya. Have faith. Ossoff and Warnock will win. This is huge for our country, for democracy, for Georgia. A Jewish man and a Black man winning a former Confederate state. What a stunning rebuke to Trump, Republicans and White Supremacy. I love it.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 6, 2021
If elected, Jon Ossoff would be the first Jewish candidate ever to become a U.S. Senator from Georgia — and from any state in the Deep South since the 1880s.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 6, 2021
And on a lighter note…
“A Jewish filmmaker and a Black preacher walk into… the US Senate”
A good day for our future.#gasen #gapol @ossoff @ReverendWarnock
— Andrew Feiler (@AndrewFeiler) January 6, 2021
