With critical Georgia Senate run-off elections just around the corner, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff has released a new ad featuring comments from former President Barack Obama. The former president made his comments praising Ossoff at a recent in-person campaign event. Obama admonished observers to “vote like our lives depend on it” and elect Ossoff to the U.S. Senate, where he would be able to build Democratic support for much needed COVID-19 relief, health care reform, voting rights protection, and more. Ossoff is on the ballot against incumbent Republican David Perdue.
In full, in the new ad, Obama says as follows:
‘Jon Ossoff has dedicated his career to fighting injustice. He learned about public service from one of my lifelong heroes, John Lewis. He knows we need a new Voting Rights Act that makes sure every Georgian is treated equally under the law. Jon’s wife, Alisha, is a doctor — he’s going to listen to the experts. If we vote like our lives depend on it, because they do, we will elect Jon Ossoff to the United States Senate.’
Check out Obama’s comments in Ossoff’s new ad, which is called “Prepared,” below:
The upcoming Senate elections in Georgia will determine control of the Senate for the next two years. If Democrats win both races — which definitely seems possible, considering Joe Biden’s recent win in the state — then the chamber will be 50-50, but vice presidents break ties. With Biden in the White House, the vice president will be Kamala Harris, herself a former Senator. In the other ongoing Georgia Senate race, Raphael Warnock is running against incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, who’s already come out with plenty of belligerent criticism of her Democratic opponent. Loeffler has even alleged that Warnock, who’s Black, “would turn violent criminals into our streets,” which (besides being false) sounds racist, as if she’s capitalizing on some kind of racist association between Black people and violence.
Control of the Senate could have serious ramifications for the Biden administration. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is slated to chair the Senate Budget Committee in the next Congress, has already suggested that there’s a possibility that key Biden pick Neera Tanden doesn’t get a vote on her nomination to lead the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Criticism of Tanden, who has served in two presidential administrations, has hinged on her public comments in which she has been critical of Republican Senators.
