Abrams. Ossoff. Warnock. Georgians.

Breathe. Breathe and Believe. 

It might take a few days to make it official in one of the races, but Georgians are going to have two Democrats, Jon Ossoff and the Reverend Raphael Warnock, as their U.S. senators.

It wasn’t a sure thing, but in politics these days what is? In this outsider’s estimation, the Democrats had a 51-to-49 shot of winning both races. 

So before I went to sleep last night I posted this on Twitter:

This morning, after Warnock’s race had been called in the middle of the night and Ossoff claimed victory on CNN:

While many news outlets haven’t come around on Ossoff’s race yet, Buzzfeed called it at 8:14 a.m. EST. The others will get there. Meanwhile, Democrats, Progressives and others who want to end the nightmare of the most damaging reign of obstructionism in our government will be holding our collective breath.

Thank you, Stacey.

There’s a reason I named Stacey Abrams the Person of the Year for 2020, and now she’s the frontrunner for 2021. She and her nonprofit, Fair Fight, registered 800,000 new voters for this cycle, and they have made the difference. Again. Just like they did in November. 

In the same post I named Black voters, and especially Black women, the Demographic of the Year. You were instrumental in the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris victory, and now you’ve pulled us through to control of the Senate.

I have no doubt that, without Abrams, Fair Fight and other organizations that helped register voters, Ossoff and Warnock would not have won. 

But they have. And that’s going to make all the difference.

“Will you shut up, man!”

That was President-Elect Biden speaking to Trump during what was billed as a presidential debate. Now, let me be one of the first to say this:

Shut the fuck up, Mitch McConnell.
No more Senate majority leadership for you!

As Senate majority leader for the past six years, McConnell has held more power than anyone in the nation, sometimes more than even President Barack Obama and the #OrangeMenace. He’s allowed votes on legislation that gave the richest in this country huge tax breaks and federal judges that please conservative and religious zealots, and that’s really about it. The Turtle slow walked and finally killed anything that would help regular, work-a-day people like you and me, usually by simply refusing to allow debate or a floor vote. Thanks to him, we have the most conservative Supreme Court in decades. And thanks to him and his GOP colleagues in the Senate, our fates have been at the discretion of an impeached president for nearly a year now.

But now…

Bye bye Mitch. Hello Kamala.

Beginning January 20, with a 50-50 split in the Senate, Vice President Harris will be the decider. That means legislation that will actually help us and our country get the coronavirus pandemic under control, prop us up financially and start building back better will make it through Congress. 

Exhale.

Enjoy the Moment

I’ve been vocal about my belief that another four years of Trump would bring about the end of our democratic republic. He and his enablers have been heading that way, the way of autocracy, for four years now, and the Republican party has been pushing in that direction for decades.

But today, as we watch seditionist GOP members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives dishonor themselves, our Constitution and our nation by objecting to the Electoral College vote count, supported by a sea of delusional MAGAt protesters in the streets of Washington, D.C., we know we’ll have the last laugh. At least for this election cycle.

Breathe. 

Tomorrow we get back to work. We have two years to build more people power to elect a stronger majority in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, hopefully majorities that are much more progressive than what we have as of today. 

For now, enjoy this moment. 

Abrams. Ossoff. Warnock. Georgians… You’ve saved us all. Thank you.

Update, 6 p.m., Jan. 6, 2021 – The Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times have called the race for Ossoff.

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