United States of America newly-elected Democratic Senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff, has expressed his gratitude to Nigerians and other Africans in the Diaspora for their support throughout his campaign which delivered victory during the mouthwatering contest.
Ossoff defeated incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue with a nearly 25,000-vote margin, or 0.56 per cent of the entire votes, with 98 per cent of the expected votes counted, according to projections by the NBC and ABC.
His win, after fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a parallel runoff election on Tuesday, has given both parties 50 seats each in the Senate.
This leaves the decision of the Senate in the case of a tie with the Vice President, who is the ceremonial head of the Congress.
Ossoff was seen in a viral video thanking some Nigerian-American health care workers group in Georgia.
He said: “Thank you to the Nigerian-American health care workers group.
“It has been a pleasure getting to know some of you over the last few months.
“Thank you for all your support. I want to recognise in particular my friend, Dr. Stanley Okoro, who has brought so many of us together.
“I want to thank Ufor, Eric, Atunwanya, Segun, Adeina, Edafe, Sojie and Tunji.
“All of the Nigerian-American and African diaspora members in the community who have helped get people out to the polls to win in Georgia.
“We have the opportunity now to win the Senate majority and we have the capability to enact legislation that will help the people.
“But it is all going to turn out here in Georgia. So, I am grateful for all that you have been doing and I enjoyed our recent Zoom conversation.
“As you know, I have had a pleasure in my life to work in West Africa and to develop relationships with the West Africans in diaspora here in Georgia.
“And the work that you all do as health care professionals is so deeply appreciated.
“My wife, Alicia, who works in an hospital has put in a lot of hours this year and I know that all of you do too to keep people healthy.
“We can make health care affordable for everybody in Georgia.
“We can establish health care as a human right for the American people.
“We can make high education and college debt free in our public colleges and HPCUs.
“We can reduce the burden of student loan debt, we can raise the minimum wage, we can invest in infrastructure and job creation and clean energy.
“We can pass a new civil rights acts to secure equal justice for race and class.
“We can build the kind of tolerant and inclusive America that welcomes immigrant communities that lives up to America’s founding ideals of equality in God’s eyes and equality under the law.”
