Reverend Warnock is a Democrat U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia. He is one of 2 such candidates running in a runoff election Jan. 5. 2021. The election will determine what party will control that body and the fate of Mitch McConnell.
Raphael Gamaliel Warnock (born July 23, 1969) is an American pastor and politician. He has been the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005. Warnock came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leader in the campaign to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. A member of the Democratic Party, he is running in the 2020 U.S. Senate special election in Georgia for the seat now held by Kelly Loeffler.
Early life and education
Warnock is from Savannah, Georgia. He grew up in public housing as the eleventh of twelve children born to Verlene and Jonathan Warnock, both Pentecostal pastors.[1] His father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he learned mechanics and welding and subsequently opened a small car restoration business where he restored junked cars for resale.[2]
Warnock graduated from Sol C. Johnson High School[3] and, having wanted to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., attended Morehouse College, where he earned a B.A. in psychology.[4][5] He credits his participation in the Upward Bound program for making him college-ready, as he was able to enroll in early college courses through Savannah State University.[3][5] He then earned a Master of Divinity, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy from Union Theological Seminary, a school affiliated with Columbia University.[6][7][8][2]
Religious work
Warnock served as the youth pastor and then as assistant pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York.[citation needed] In 2002, while senior pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland, Warnock and an assistant minister were charged with obstructing a police investigation into suspected child abuse at a church-run camp in Carroll County, Maryland. Warnock said the alleged abuse was not sexual and denied any wrongdoing in trying to prevent a state trooper from interviewing counselors. He said he was only asserting that lawyers should be present during the interviews.[9]
In 2005, he became senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr.'s former congregation; he is the fifth person to serve as Ebenezer's senior pastor since its founding.[3] [10]
As pastor, Warnock advocated for clemency for Troy Davis, who was executed in 2011.[11] In 2013, he delivered the benediction at the public prayer service at the second inauguration of Barack Obama.[12] In March 2019, Warnock hosted an interfaith meeting on climate change at his church, featuring Al Gore and William Barber II.[13]
Politics
Warnock came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leader in the campaign to expand Medicaid in the state.[14] In March 2014, Warnock led a sit-in at the Georgia State Capitol to press state legislators to accept the expansion of Medicaid offered by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[15] He and other leaders were arrested during the protest.[15][16] In 2015, Warnock considered running in the 2016 election for the United States Senate seat held by Johnny Isakson as a member of the Democratic Party.[17] He opted not to run.[18][19]
From June 2017 to January 2020, Warnock chaired the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan organization focused on voter registration.[20][10]
2020 U.S. Senate special election
Main article: 2020 United States Senate special election in Georgia
In January 2020, Warnock decided to run in the 2020 special election for the United States Senate seat held by Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed after Isakson's resignation.[21] He has been endorsed by Democratic Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, and Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Stacey Abrams, and former presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.[22][10][23][24][25] Several players of the Atlanta Dream, a WNBA team co-owned by Loeffler, wore shirts endorsing Warnock in response to controversial comments Loeffler made about the Black Lives Matter movement.[26]
Warnock supports expanding the Affordable Care Act.[27] He has called for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.[14]
Personal life
Warnock married Oulèye Ndoye in a public ceremony on February 14, 2016; the couple had held a private ceremony in January.[4][28] They have two children. The couple separated in November 2019.[29]
Retrieved from Wikipedia Nov. 20, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Warnock