Some WNBA players celebrated on Wednesday after Democrat Raphael Warnock was designed to defeat Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in a runoff election for the Senate in Georgia. The WNBA players campaigned for Warnock after Loeffler, co-owner of the WNBA team, Atlanta Dream, criticized the league’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I woke up and just smiled remembering that once Kelly Loeffler tried to come to W and we helped @ReverendWarnock take your seat in the Senate, “New York player Liberty Layshia Clarendon tweeted on Wednesday.” Winning has never been so good. “
“Not only is Georgia’s first black senator Raphael Warnock, but also the first black democratic senator EVER elected in the south,” he wrote Brianna Turner of Phoenix Mercury. “50 years ago that was unimaginable. I wonder where the south is in 50 years.”
WNBA and the Atlanta Dream made headlines with their league-wide support for the Black Lives Matter over the summer, with BLM warm-ups and T-shirts, a statement Loeffler rejected in June and asked WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to close.
In a statement ridiculing the protest in August, Loeffler called players’ shirts a sign of a culture of cancellation. “This is just further evidence that the culture of deregulation wants to exclude anyone who disagrees with them,” she said. “It is clear that the league is more concerned with politics than basketball, and I stick to what I wrote in June.”
In response, the Atlanta Dream and other senior WNBA members endorsed Reverend Warnock, even wearing “Vote Warnock” t-shirts in their games.
Atlanta Dream striker Elizabeth Williams told The New York Times that the idea for the t-shirts came from WNBA Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird. Bird, who shared a photo of him with the Warnock shirt on Wednesday, told Deadspin last month that players chose not to attack Loeffler and support Warnock.
“We found that this voice we have together is very powerful,” Bird told the sports channel. “The size of our league allows this, we have about 144 players in the league, but we had to go through our careers fighting for things … So we developed this backbone and learned to fight for ourselves. And now we are lending this fight to others. “
The Times also reported that the idea was discussed and approved by Stacey Abrams, who holds an advisory position on the WNBA Players’ Association board. Just two days after the players donned the shirts, the campaign raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 grassroots donors and increased Warnock’s Twitter account to almost 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News.
Players maintained their activism in the months that followed, serving as voting workers and illuminating the causes of racial justice in the months leading up to election day. Dream player Renee Montgomery opted out of the last season entirely to fight for social justice reform and voter advocacy in Georgia. Some Dream players narrated a “More than one vote” ad released on Monday that it called people to vote in the runoff races in Georgia. In the video, Williams called on his followers to vote for Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the other Democrat running for a seat in the Senate.
Warnock is about to be the first black senator in Georgia’s history. Exit poll data shows that he won 92% of the state’s black votes.
“We were told that we could not win this election,” Warnock said during a speech to his supporters on Wednesday. “But tonight we prove with hope, hard work and the people at our side, everything is possible. May my story be an inspiration for some young man who is trying to grab and grab the American dream.”
Although the WNBA protest also called for Loeffler’s removal, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock said the Dream is for sale. However, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James put his hat in the ring as a potential buyer, suggesting on Twitter that he wants to “set up a property group” to buy the team. James, who heads More Than a Vote, also said he was “proud” of what he saw from Georgia voters on Tuesday.
“I’m proud of my people for getting there and doing what they do best,” James he told reporters. “And that is being heard, being seen, being powerful and being involved.”