Jon Ossoff is the youngest Democrat elected to the Senate since Joe Biden in 1973
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Jon Ossoff has become the youngest Democrat to be elected as a US senator since Joe Biden in 1973.
Ossoff, 33, unseated incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in one of two runoff elections in Georgia, according to a projection early Wednesday by Decision Desk HQ and Insider.
Ossoff is also the first millennial to be elected to the Senate. The youngest sitting US senator is the Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, who is 41."N00b 4 lyfe," Ossoff tweeted in April 2014. The year before, he tweeted: "Shouldn't autocorrect know 'crunkest' is a word?"
The last time a Democratic candidate as young as Ossoff won a Senate seat was in 1973, when a 30-year-old Biden defeated Republican Sen. J. Caleb Boggs to represent Delaware. Biden, now 78, is set to be inaugurated as the US president on January 20. The youngest person ever elected to the Senate was John Henry Eaton, who was 28 when he was elected to represent Tennessee in November 1818.The minimum age to be elected as a US senator is 30, according the US Constitution, but officials apparently forgot to ask Eaton how old he was.
Runoff elections were called in Georgia after no candidate in either Senate race secured more than the required 50% of the vote in the November 3 general election.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, the other Democrat running for a Senate seat in Georgia, defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, according to an earlier projection by Decision Desk HQ and Insider.Warnock is the first Black man in Georgia to be elected as a US senator, and his victory brought an end to the 24-year losing streak for Democratic Senate candidates in the state.
In a Tuesday-night speech - in which he all but declared victory - Warnock paid special thanks to his mother, Verlene.
"The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator," Warnock said.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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