Behind the drama of the presidential race, the November 3 election catapulted Reverend Raphael Warnock into the national spotlight.
Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, is one of two Democrats running for two seats in the US Senate in Georgia in the January 5 election. If victorious, they would hand over control of the Senate to Democrats, turning President-elect Joe Biden’s early years into office.
If he wins, Warnock will also make history as Georgia’s first black senator and only the 11th black senator in the country’s history. In an interview with Yahoo News last week, Warnock said the historical significance “has not been lost” for him.
“Being Georgia’s first black senator would be a tremendous honor,” said Warnock, 51, who grew up on the Kayton Homes projects in Savannah, Georgia, and was the 11th of 12 children. “I hope that when you see me doing this, you encourage and inspire other marginalized people and people of good conscience in our state to speak up and fight for what they believe in.”
The pastor also said: “Nowhere else, except in America, is my story possible. So, I believe that the American dream is still possible, but it is escaping so many, and the gap between those who have and those who don’t have is becoming an abyss. “
The importance of disputes in Georgia also seems to resonate with state voters, more than 2 million of whom have already voted in the second round, according to state data. These types of out-of-cycle disputes usually attract far less turnout than the high-profile presidential race, but the initial votes so far are behind the November election, in which 5 million Georgians voted.
And many of these Georgians are becoming acquainted with Warnock, thanks in large part to the millions of dollars in advertising spent by Democrats and Republicans to defend and attack him.
Warnock’s parents were Pentecostal preachers, and Warnock’s father served in the United States Army during World War II. Wanting to follow in the footsteps of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Warnock went to study at Morehouse College, a historically black, all-male college in Atlanta, which ended up earning four degrees before becoming, in 2005, the pastor of the famous Baptist Ebenezer Church, where King used to preach.
“Things are more difficult now than they were for me [growing up], and this is especially true in this pandemic, ”Warnock told Yahoo News. “We need a leader who works for Georgians and fights.”
Warnock’s opponent, Senator Kelly Loeffler, is a businesswoman and also a political newcomer. She was nominated for her seat by Governor Brian Kemp when Senator Johnny Isakson retired at the end of last year, citing health problems. Although President Trump wanted Kemp to nominate one of his allies for the chair, Loeffler left his mark in office by shamelessly embracing both Trump and the conservative culture wars that defined much of his presidency. She made the most headlines as a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream; earlier this year, she sent a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert criticizing the politicization of the game, writing that the “Black Lives Matter political movement” does not align with the league or its team.
The runoff run was defined by violent blows between the Loeffler and Warnock campaigns.
Loeffler repeatedly called Warnock a “socialist” and “the most radical and dangerous politician in America”. She took advantage of several statements he made during religious services, including some in which he criticized the police. And she wrote an open letter last week accusing Warnock of being anti-Semitic, a claim that some Jewish leaders in Georgia have rejected.
Many of the attacks on Warnock in particular have been criticized for invoking racial stereotypes in a state with a long history of oppression from its black residents. A coalition of black pastors came to Warnock’s defense, arguing that Loeffler’s attacks amount to a criticism of the black church, an accusation that she denies. Warnock agreed with the pastors, tweeting that Loeffler’s attacks “are harmful to black churches. ”He even told Yahoo News that he was not worried about the jabs.
“While Senator Loeffler is busy cursing me, let me tell you where I am,” he said. “I believe that in the largest nation in the world people should have affordable healthcare, that Georgians who work hard every day deserve a living wage and that older people should be able to pay for the cost of prescription drugs. Kelly Loeffler may think this is radical. I think it’s common sense. “
Warnock and the Democrats launched their own sharp attacks on Loeffler, accusing her of “dumping stocks” after a confidential Senate coronavirus briefing last January, when the pandemic was in its infancy. Loeffler denies any wrongdoing and said the stock trading was done regardless of any input from her.
She also found herself in trouble after posing for a photo with Chester Doles, a longtime white supremacist linked to the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Although Loeffler said he did not know who Doles was, Warnock’s campaign backed down, noting that Doles was kicked out of a campaign event in September. Yahoo News has contacted Loeffler’s campaign for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
Warnock also found himself in a small storm when a police interview broke out last week from an incident in March in which his ex-wife accused him of running over her foot with a car. Warnock denied running over his foot and was never charged. Loeffler called the claims “deeply disturbing”; Warnock’s campaign said that Loeffler had “a new low point of attacks on the family”.
The list of hits between the two campaigns is endless, reflecting both what is at stake and the potential for competitiveness in races. Second-round elections are notoriously difficult to research and predict, but a recent survey by Insider Advantage and Fox 5 Atlanta found Warnock ahead of Loeffler, 49 to 47 percent. Although Biden beat Trump in Georgia, Republican defenders in the qualifiers may have reason to be optimistic, given the party’s surprising strength in November’s parliamentary disputes and the historic downturn of the Republican Party in the state of Peach.
Further fueling the attacks are the tens of millions of dollars flooding campaign coffers.
Warnock reported total revenues of more than $ 103 million between October 15 and December 16, easily exceeding Loeffler’s total of almost $ 64 million. Both sides have more than enough resources to fill the radio waves.
And while there are two Democrats running, Warnock drew most of the attacks as the lesser known of the two. The other Democrat is Jon Ossoff, who broke national fund-raising records in a 2017 special election for the United States House and is now trying to oust Republican Senator David Perdue.
An unlikely result of the second round was the camaraderie between Ossoff, a young former Atlanta Jewish Congressman, and Warnock, a middle-aged black Baptist pastor from Savannah. Even though the two Democrats are running different races, it is almost as if the duo were fellow runners, looking to join forces to defeat their Republican opponents.
“I am deeply honored to be running alongside my friend Jon Ossoff,” Warnock told Yahoo News. “We are both focused on our own races, but what matters is the people of Georgia.”
Warnock also said he believed that Georgians are not thinking so much about the attacks that dominate the airwaves, but about the financial and security challenges that their families face this year.
“I don’t think the people of Georgia wake up in the morning wondering about Jon Ossoff or Raphael Warnock,” he said. “They are wondering if their families are going to stay healthy, if they are going to be able to pay the bills, how they are going to put food on the table.”
Below are important dates for Georgians to remember before the state Senate election on January 5, 2021:
(Cover photo by Elijah Nouvelage via Getty Images)
_____
Read more on Yahoo News: