WASHINGTON — Raphael Warnock, pastor of a prominent church in Atlanta, would make history in the January runoff election if he became the first Black man to win a Senate seat from Georgia, which would also keep the total number of African American senators at a record three.
The Democrat who is competing against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is the last remaining African American candidate running for the Senate during this election cycle.
The Jan. 5 Georgia runoff election could determine whether the number of Black senators stays the same after Sen. Kamala Harris resigns her seat to become vice president. The number of Black senators could also be affected by whether the governor of California appoints an African American politician to fill the Senate seat Harris will vacate.
Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, said in an interview that the more perfect union promised in the Constitution can only be achieved through diverse representation in government.
"I am deeply honored to be running in this moment in which we are seeing a renewed focus on race in our country, on the progress we have made and how much more progress we have yet to make on this issue. And so it's a moment where I am positioned to make history, but more importantly to make a difference," Warnock said.
Five other Black candidates for Senate lost their general election bids this year. Only one, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, was elected. The sole Black Republican running for Senate, John James of Michigan, lost his race.
Black representation in the Senate falls far short of a 2019 U. S. Census Bureau estimate that African Americans make up 13.4% of the national population.
Booker, Harris and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina are currently the only Black senators in the 100-member chamber. They are also the largest group of Black senators to serve together in U.S history.
"Racial inequality exists in this country, all across the board. It's not just limited to politics," said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who is a member of House Democratic leadership. The country was built on inequality and it persists, he said.
"The success of the current administration tells you why it is that way. The country is still racially divided, and it's going to be that way for a while. Many people are working on it, hopefully we'll get more success going forward," Clyburn said in an interview with McClatchy.
For Yvette Simpson, the CEO of Democracy for America and the first woman of color to lead the progressive organization, it is "somewhat heartbreaking and frustrating" that the Senate may soon be down to two Black members.
Her organization is one of several groups that is pressing California Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint an African American woman such as Reps. Karen Bass or Barbara Lee to the Senate seat that Harris is vacating.
DFA endorsed Warnock early in his race, aligning themselves with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and Fair Fight founder Stacey Abrams and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The organization has launched a text messaging program Friday to try and boost Warnock and Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is competing in a separate Senate runoff against Republican Sen. David Perdue.
"The Senate is becoming less democratic and less accountable to people over time," Simpson said. "Because there is this belief and this expectation that once you're in that seat, it is yours and there is no unseating you, because of the amount of money and the amount of time it takes to challenge someone for a seat. That's why these special elections created great opportunity."
Black candidates running as Democrats lost general elections for the Senate in the traditionally red states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina this year.
But the Democratic Party is increasingly optimistic about Warnock's chances after Joe Biden and running mate Harris won in Georgia, which in the past has been considered a safe Republican stronghold for presidential races. Democratic optimism about Georgia is also based on Abrams' close race when she lost her bid for governor two years ago.
The threat of losing both of the state's Senate seats has inspired fierce Republican attacks on Warnock over remarks that the pastor — who for the past 15 years has led Martin Luther King Jr's former flock — made in sermons, television interviews and speeches.
He says his comments are being distorted, and the criticism is a "distraction" from Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Loeffler's opposition to extending enhanced unemployment benefits in another Covid-19 relief package.
"I'm glad that Kelly Loeffler is listening to my sermons and she should listen to more of them," he said. "This to me is a distraction, and she is engaged in it, because she cannot defend her record."
Loeffler was appointed to her seat and would be the first woman elected to the Senate from Georgia if she won. Loeffler's communications director Stephen Lawson, in a statement, renewed campaign criticisms, citing comments Warnock made about Israel, the opioid crisis and racism in America.
"We're hopeful that Reverend Warnock will join us in focusing on the issues confronting our state rather than using fear and division to try to divide us," Lawson said.
Former acting Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile said Republicans are spreading disinformation about Warnock.
"I think it is part of the old Southern playbook that is constantly used whenever a person of color runs for office," Brazile said. "If this is the best that she can give the people of Georgia, then I think they're going to reject it, because Georgia and Georgians are better than this and they understand what's at stake."
Jaime Harrison, a former aide to Clyburn and a former South Carolina Democratic Party chair, mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Senate this year in his home state. He has since raised more than $500,000 for Warnock's campaign and has a goal of steering $1 million toward him.
Harrison said he had encouraged Warnock to stand strong against Republican attacks.
"These campaigns that are built to scare people, falling back on these old racial tropes that were out there, particularly around Black men, and that's sad to see, but that's the playbook that we see right now in this party," said Harrison, who is under consideration to run the DNC.
Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr. who is close to President Donald Trump, said she backs multiethnic representation in Congress but cannot support Warnock because of his positions on abortion rights and transgender rights.
She said in an interview that while she does not speak for the King family, she is "disturbed" that Warnock's positions are being associated with the activism of her late father, A.D. King, and her late uncle, because of the emphasis that Warnock has placed on being the pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s spiritual home.
"My theology is totally different from that of Pastor Raphael Warnock," she said.
Warnock told McClatchy that his core political beliefs are in line with those of Martin Luther King Jr.
Deana Bass Williams, former deputy chief of staff to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and a Georgia native, said that her issue with Warnock is that he is a progressive Democrat.
"I don't think he's good for Georgia, whether he's Black or white," she said. "If people paint this election in racial stripe, then I feel like we are doing everyone a disservice. This is about are we going to have someone who is dangerously progressive that does not speak for or represent Georgia."
African American politicians have increasingly won congressional seats. The current Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in history, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, and the number of Black lawmakers serving in the House of Representatives was almost at parity with the percentage of Americans who identify as Black. But the Senate has struggled to catch up.
A total of 10 African Americans have served in the Senate, with Scott and Booker joining in 2013 and Harris taking office in 2017.
Originally appointed to his seat after an incumbent Republican stepped down before the end of his term, Scott went on to win a special election and later a full six-year term. Booker initially won a special election and has since won reelection twice.
Scott introduced legislation in 2018 with Harris and Booker to make lynching a federal crime. He was also the author of the GOP's policing reform bill last summer. Neither piece of legislation has become law.
"I'm glad Tim took the mantle to work on it, but this is something we needed all senators to be invested in," Harrison said of police reform legislation. "It's just not good enough to have one senator to carry the water on these types of issues."
Booker and Harris also introduced policing reform legislation in June after George Floyd, a Black man, died in police custody. It passed in the Democratic-run House but was not taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Referencing the legislative fight and the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on communities of color, Warnock said, "We find ourselves in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic that's created an economic turndown the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression and a renewed conversation around the American covenant and the ways in which racism and other forms of bigotry undermine the strength of that covenant."
Democrats have meanwhile added Booker to their Senate leadership team as a vice chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. Harrison said he would like to see Booker further empowered and provided with resources to hold town halls in African American communities across the country.
Harris will leave the Senate midway through her term after being elected vice president. She is expected to be a leading voice in the Biden administration on issues of racial disparity.
"Of course she leaves a big vacuum. Any single individual of her caliber from such a large state would leave a big hole in the Senate. But it once again shows us that we've made a lot of progress, but we're still not there yet," Brazile said.
