Raphael Warnock, who is projected to have won a senatorial seat in U.S. Congress for the Democratic Party, is going to Washington as the first Black Democratic senator ever to be elected in a Southern state. Warnock will be representing the state of Georgia and together with fellow Democrat and new Georgia senator Jon Ossoff is the last addition to the 117th U.S. Congress before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Even though Congress is more diverse today than it has ever been, the overwhelming majority of U.S. Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senators is white. Warnock will be one of only three Black senators and one of only eleven minority senators in the new Congress. The U.S. legislative session has been growing more diverse for the sixth election in a row, with most new (and old) minority members serving as Democrats. 115 people of color will be holding Congressional office as Democrats on Jan 20, 2021, opposed to 22 serving as Republicans.
More changes are coming to Congress in the spring of 2021, when Representatives Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Marcia Fudge (D-OH) as well as Senator Kamala Harris - all minority women - will have to be replaced in special elections since they are joining the Biden cabinet. Two more vacant seats need to be filled in the House: that of the late Republican member-elect Luke Letlow, who died from COVID-19 complications in December, and that of Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) who is resigning on inauguration day to join the Biden White House as senior advisor.
