ATLANTA — Georgia’s first Jewish and Black U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were sworn into the Senate Wednesday only hours after President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Adding another layer of history, the pair’s formal entrance to Congress was one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ first actions in office — the first Black, South Asian and female to ever hold the second highest political position in the country.

Ossoff, 33, and Warnock, 51, clinched two consequential seats in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoffs that gave Democrats de facto control of the upper chamber. Now a 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats, Harris will cast the final tie-breaking vote on key legislation. The situation gives Biden an easier path to passing policies he promoted during his presidential campaign.

The timing also gives the two new senators a chance to take part in the imminent Donald Trump impeachment trials in which they will vote whether or not to uphold the House’s vote to impeach him on the charge of “incitement of insurrection.” He made his own history by becoming the first U.S. President ever to be impeached twice.

Now that the new administration has been sworn in, the Senate vote would not remove Trump from office but would disqualify him from the benefits that a former president is allowed and initiate an additional vote “on barring him from running again,” now-Sen. Majority leader Chuck Schumer has said.

Biden tweeted on Jan. 13 that he “hopes (the Senate will) deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on other urgent business.”

Ossoff and Warnock were sworn in at a time America is facing multiple crises: a pandemic, a racial reckoning and violence by pro-Trump loyalists after the general election.

The pair campaigned on a similar message as the incoming president, one of unity and a “new” America. Both focused much of their campaign on expanding access to health care and voting rights.

After officially entering Congress, Warnock said that despite today’s historic strides forward, the nation is still caught in the midst of a deadly pandemic. 

“I’m ready to start working in earnest with President Biden and Vice President Harris, along with the rest of Georgia’s congressional delegation, to deliver fair, swift and equitable solutions for Georgia to get beyond this public health crisis, ” he said in a statement. “….At this inflection point in our nation’s history, we must also act urgently to protect the dignity of work, expand access to affordable health care, and heal together to ensure Georgia’s hardworking families have what they need to thrive.

Ossoff did not release a statement after being sworn in.

Schumer on the Senate floor in his first speech as majority leader said he was “happy and proud” to greet the two newest senators and reiterated the history being made in the chamber Wednesday.

“Warnock was born while Georgia was represented in this chamber by two staunch segregationists and is now the first African American senator Georgia has ever elected,” he said. “And that Jon Ossoff is the first Jewish senator from his state sworn in today on a book of Hebrew Scripture once owned by the rabbi who decades ago, formed a bond between the Jewish and African American communities in Georgia.”

The choice of Georgia voters to both back a Democratic presidential candidate for office for the first time since 1992 and to send two Democrats to represent the state in the U.S. Senate may have shocked the country, but was the culmination of years of organizing by state Democrats — particularly Black female party leaders.

“The swearing-in of our two new senators and solidification of the Senate’s Democratic majority could not come at a more crucial time for our nation,” Nikema Williams, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement. “Georgia voters resoundingly chose Senator Ossoff and Senator Warnock to be their voices in Washington because of their commitment to uplifting every voice and ensuring justice for all.”