Jon Ossoff Could Become The Youngest Democrat Senator Since Joe Biden In 1973

Updated September 8, 2021

While much of the post-election fallout we've seen since November has concerned President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn its results, Americans have also remained acutely aware that control of the Senate comes down to two heated runoff elections in Georgia.

As Vox explained, whenever a primary or general election in Georgia doesn't see any candidate pull through with more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates then find themselves going head-to-head in a follow-up race.

As my colleague, Ryan Ford, discussed, one of these runoff elections has seen Democratic candidate Reverend Raphael Warnock emerge victorious and become the first Black senator elected in Georgia.

But while the other race between Senator David Perdue and his challenger Jon Ossoff remains up in the air, Ossoff stands to make some history of his own if he wins.

While most outlets still consider it too early to call the election, Ossoff seems to be in a strong position to win.

Reddit | Johnnnnnnnnnnnhn

As NPR reported, he has an approximate lead of 16,000 votes on Perdue at the time of this writing and The New York Times election needle points to a likely Ossoff win.

As the newspaper mentioned, Perdue would need 61% of the remaining 73,000 votes yet to be counted to pull ahead.

It is likely for this reason that Ossoff has already tweeted out the following video thanking Georgia's voters for electing him.

As the BBC reported, he faced his final days of campaigning with similar confidence and if he turns out to be right, his age of 33 will make him the youngest Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate since 1973.

If elected, Ossoff will also be the youngest person serving in the Senate and the first millennial senator to be elected.

Wikimedia Commons | Office of Senator Josh Hawley

According to Business Insider, this will unseat 41-year-old Josh Hawley for the title of the youngest senator in the chamber.

The last time the Democratic Party saw the election of such a young senator, it was none other than the now President-Elect Joe Biden.

Wikimedia Commons | U.S. Congress

This may come as a strange fact in a time where he has just set a record as the oldest man to be elected president, but as Business Insider reported, he was only 30 when he defeated J. Caleb Boggs in the race to represent Delaware.

One might expect that this would indeed make him the youngest elected senator in American history as 30 is the minimum age allowed for Senate candidates by the U.S. Constitution.

However, that distinction actually goes to John Henry Eaton, who was elected in Tennessee back in 1818.

Wikimedia Commons | Robert Walter Weir

As Business Insider reported, he was able to achieve this at the age of 28 despite the Constitution's restrictions.

As far as anyone can tell, that happened simply because election officials neglected to ask him how old he was.

But while that's not likely to happen again, we appear to be on the cusp of seeing our first millennial senator in Ossoff.

h/t: Business Insider

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