Raphael Warnock Wins Georgia Runoff, to Become State’s First Black Senator
Written by SOURCE on January 6, 2021
Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler in Georgia‘s extremely close and expensive Senate runoffs, according to the Associated Press.
Rev. Warnock, a senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the same church that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at, has made history with his election victory as he will become the state’s first Black senator. Warnock has previously said that he plans to stay on as a pastor if he wins the election.
On the flip side, Loeffler, who is the wealthiest member of congress with a reported net worth of around a billion, was appointed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in 2019 to take over Senator Johnny Isakson after he retired. Loeffler, a staunch Donald Trump supporter that was previously photographed with a former Ku Klux Klan leader at a campaign event, was sworn in on January 6, 2020.
In August, players on the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, which Loeffler co-owns, wore t-shirts that urged people to vote for Warnock.
Rev. Warnock previously received 32.9% of the vote in November’s crowded special election and Loeffler received 25.9% of votes. The election went to a runoff as a result of no candidate receiving at least 50% of the vote. Warnock is a Georgia native who was born in Savannah while Loeffler was born and raised in Illinois.
Warnock will be up for re-election in the 2022 midterms.
The runoffs, which have garnered a tremendous amount of attention, will decide whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate. Prior to Tuesday’s runoff election in Georgia, Republicans controlled 50 seats and Democrats controlled 48. With Warnock’s win that number will increase to 49 seats for Democrats. A 50–50 split in the Senate will work in the favor of Democrats as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have the power to break any ties.
Georgia‘s hotly contested runoff election also saw Republican incumbent David Perdue facing Democrat Jon Ossoff. At the time of this writing, that race had yet to be called by the AP. Per state law, a recount can be requested by a candidate if the margin in an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.
Perdue previously received 49.7% in November’s election while Ossoff received 47.9%.
This post will be updated.
