By AVERI HARPER and CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — After Kamala Harris’ own historic swearing-in as vice president, she will usher in three other historic firsts as she swears in three new senators.On Wednesday afternoon Harris will swear in her successor, Alex Padilla, to take her old Senate seat. Padilla will become California’s first Latino senator.Harris will then administer the oath of office for Georgia’s newest senators, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.Warnock, who ministers at the same Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, will become Georgia’s first Black senator. Ossoff will be the first Jewish senator from Georgia and at 33 is the youngest Democrat elected to the Senate since Joe Biden was elected in 1972.The moment Warnock and Ossoff are sworn in will also mark when Democrats officially take control of the Senate.The Georgia Democrats will give the legislative body a 50-50 split, but essentially giving Democrats the majority as Harris would be the tie-breaking vote.When Harris resigned from her Senate post on Monday, she wrote in an op-ed for her local newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, that she intends to fulfill her “constitutional duty” as the tie-breaker, but hopes that lawmakers will find common ground to pass legislation.”I intend to work tirelessly as your Vice President, including, if necessary, fulfilling this Constitutional duty,” Harris wrote. “At the same time, it is my hope that rather than come to the point of a tie, the Senate will instead find common ground and do the work of the American people.” Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
