President-elect Joe Biden endorsed Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock in a new televised ad.
Read More: Madison Cawthorn says ‘real Americans’ shouldn’t support Warnock
Titled Asking You, the one-minute campaign calls for Georgia citizens to issue their votes for Warnock and Ossoff. Biden says he needs the two nominees to win in order to beat the pandemic and provide COVID-19 relief to families and businesses across the country.
“On day one as your president, I’m prepared to sign a COVID relief package that fully funds the public health response needed, led by Georgia’s own CDC. It will ensure free testing and vaccination for every American and will get small businesses the assistance they need right now,” the President-elect shared. “Let me be clear, I need Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the United States Senate to get this done.”
As theGrio reported early voting began on Dec. 14 for the important runoff race. The winner of the election will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. There have already been 1.2 million mail-in ballots requested in the state, with 200,000 returned. According to the report, more than 86,000 voters who did not vote in November requested ballots for the January ticket.
Read More: Jon Ossoff walks Edmund Pettus Bridge, tributes mentor John Lewis in ‘Selma’ ad
In the ad, Biden stressed the importance of the win in order to fulfill his campaign promises.
“There are folks in Congress threatening to do everything in their power to block our efforts. We need you to get out there and vote for Jon Ossoff, as well as Raphael Warnock. We need them in the Senate.”
During an interview with theGrio, Ossoff dismissed his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, as well as Sen. Kelly Loeffler who’s up against Warnock and their attacks in the effort to win the election.
“I dismiss them. This is just like garden variety, paint by numbers, partisan nonsense,” Ossoff said to theGrio. “The attacks that they’re running against Reverend Warnock, yes, they’re racialized and racist and intended to ‘other’ him.”
“The reason that they want to divide us is so that we can’t build the multiracial coalition that Reverend Warnock and I are building to demand health, jobs, and justice, because all Georgians, Black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American, all Georgians, deserve and need health, jobs, and justice,” he remarked.
Warnock has also responded to the racist rhetoric exhibited by their Republican peers. During an interview with theGrio, the reverend shared he will not let their tactics deter him from his mission.
“I’m not going to be distracted by the politics of fear and division … we know what they’re doing, these are all ways of saying that he’s something other than you. And it’s really unfortunate that people are still trafficking in this kind of politics,” he said.
Read More: Jon Ossoff calls out racist attacks by Republicans ahead of Georgia runoff
“The broadening of a space so that everybody can breathe. That’s what America is about. That’s what my career has been about and that’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate.”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!