On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that Democrat Raphael Warnock had won one of the US Senate seats in Georgia.
Warnock, who is also a pastor and voting rights activist, will be Georgias first Black Senator. He defeated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, who has not conceded.
In a video statement released a few hours before the race was called, Warnock referred to his modest origins as one of 12 children in “Kayton Homes Housing Projects, of Savannah Georgia.”
He said, “ I stand before you as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here.”
In the second Georgia Senate runoff between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, the winner has not been named. Democrats would need to win both seats to control the Senate and support President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda. Ossoff kept a narrow edge in that race, according to an AP count early Wednesday morning.
In the stormy aftermath of the presidential election, the runoff contests took place, with Donald Trump regularly making unproven allegations of fraud. He narrowly lost Georgia to Biden, and in the previous election, both Senate candidates found themselves drawn into the drama.
Warnock, 51, is the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, a position held by Martin Luther King Jr. He ran on a platform to improve health care coverage, extend Medicaid, and secure voting rights. He painted the wealthiest member of Congress, Loeffler, as if he were out of touch.
Governor Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to replace Senator Johnny Isakson, who had retired for health reasons. She is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, Chief Executive Officer of the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange Inc., who recently became a billionaire. She repeatedly depicted Warnock as a “radical liberal” who did not share Georgia’s ideals and who would lead the nation towards socialism.
Warnock will now fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term.
The races for both Senate have forced runoffs after no nominee won more than 50 percent of the vote in the November election. Warnock’s victory ends a losing streak of more than 30 years for Democrats in statewide runoffs.
