Jon Ossoff was sworn in on Wednesday as the first Jewish U.S. senator from Georgia.
Taking the oath on a Bible from the rabbi at The Temple in Atlanta, which was bombed by white supremacists in 1958, Ossoff was sworn in along with fellow Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Alex Padilla. Warnock was the first black senator sworn in from Georgia, while Padilla was sworn in as the first Hispanic senator from California.
Warnock and Loeffler ran against each other to finish the final two years of Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. Isakson retired in December 2019 due to health reasons, and Loeffler was picked by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to serve through 2020.
Ossoff will serve a full six-year term, while Warnock and Padilla will be up for re-election in 2022 for full six-year terms.
With the new senators sworn in, the Democrats took control of the Senate, finishing their unified control of the White House and both houses of Congress—the first time the Democrats have been in that position since 2011.