Rev. Raphael Warnock is expected to win the second round of the U.S. Senate special elections in Georgia, reversing a Republican seat and bringing Democrats one step closer to unified control of Congress and the White House, according to NBC News.
Ebenezer Baptist Church senior pastor will defeat current Republican Party Senator Kelly Loeffler, a former business executive who was appointed to temporarily fill the position.
Warnock is the first elected black senator in Georgia and the first democratically elected black senator in the south. He will be one of three black senators in Congress and the eleventh black senator to ever serve.
“I come before you tonight as a man who knows that the improbable journey that brought me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here,” Warnock said in a speech early Wednesday. “I promise you tonight: I’m going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia, regardless of who you vote for in this election.”
Although Warnock led and the pending votes were reduced, Loeffler did not concede Wednesday morning and stated that “we will win this election.”
Republican David Perdue, whose first term in the Senate ended Sunday, also faced a dispute against challenger Democrat Jon Ossoff. NBC News has not projected any winners in this race as of Wednesday morning, as Ossoff leads with 98% of the expected votes.
With Warnock’s expected victory, the Democratic group has 49 members in the upper house, while Republicans in the Senate have 50 seats. If Ossoff wins the remaining test, the Senate will be divided evenly, with Elected Vice President Kamala Harris giving the tiebreaker vote. Democratic control of Congress would give more room for President-elect Joe Biden to adopt his legislative priorities.
Warnock, 51, and Loeffler, 50, came out as the top two finishers in the crowded November special election. The seat was opened when former Republican Senator Johnny Isakson retired early in his term. After no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in November, Georgia’s election rules called for the race to move to the second phase in January.
The special election between Loeffler and Warnock is the second most expensive race in the Senate in history, just behind this year’s dispute between Perdue and Ossoff, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsible Politics. The Loeffler and Warnock race has grossed nearly $ 363 million as of Monday.
On the campaign trail, Warnock frequently highlighted his life journey, from growing up in Savannah public housing to preaching in the historic pulpit of Atlanta, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was once. .
Loeffler repeatedly labeled her opponent a “radical liberal Raphael Warnock,” linking him to what she believes is a socialist agenda that includes “Medicare for All,” the green New Deal and defunding the police. Warnock himself does not support these policies, although he has advocated for the expansion of Medicaid, investment in green energy, and criminal justice reform.
“He’s someone who would fundamentally change this country,” Loeffler told Fox News on Sunday. “Its values are out of date with Georgia.”
Loeffler’s campaign used sound bites from Warnock’s past sermons to accuse him of being anti-gun, anti-military, anti-police and anti-Israeli. The Warnock campaign said these clips have been taken out of context and do not reflect their stances.
A coalition of black pastors in Georgia wrote an open letter in late December to Loeffler asking him to stop characterizing Warnock as “radical” or “socialist.”
“We see your attacks on Warnock as a broader attack on the Black Church and the traditions of faith we stand for,” the pastors said.
Loeffler tried to relate Warnock to the visit of Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro in 1995 to a church where he had been a youth pastor. Warnock said he had never met Castro and that PolitiFact found no evidence that he was involved in the decisions made about the appearance.
Meanwhile, Warnock criticized Loeffler for taking a photo at a campaign event with white supremacist Chester Doles, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance.
“Kelly had no idea who he was, and if he had, I would have kicked him out immediately because we condemn in the most outrageous terms everything he stands for,” Loeffler spokesman Stephen Lawson told the Atlanta Journal. Constitution.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler, in part, to appeal to more moderate suburban women who have moved away from the Republican Party in response to Donald Trump’s presidency. Although Loeffler once supported Senator Mitt Romney, he has been strongly allied with Trump since he became a senator, including support for his baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud.
Loeffler has refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory or that the president-elect would win Georgia’s election votes. He announced Monday evening in a statement that he would oppose the certification of the results of the Electoral College on Wednesday, a maneuver that is expected to fail. The move came after Trump threatened Georgia Republican Secretary of State Raffensperger over a phone call and pressured the election official to find popular votes that would tilt the count in his favor and nullify election results.
“Senator Loeffler has a responsibility to speak out against unfounded allegations of fraud, to defend Georgia’s election, and to put Georgia ahead of herself. She has never done or will ever do so,” Warnock said in a statement. communicated on Sunday.
Warnock has repeatedly accused Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, of privileged trade, saying he used the private knowledge he was given as a senator about the coronavirus pandemic to conduct lucrative stock trading in early 2020.
“He poured millions of dollars into stocks, reduced them, and then when he was able to help normal people, he didn’t. And the people of Georgia haven’t seen relief for months,” Warnock said on Dec. 6. December. debate against Loeffler.
Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, president of the New York Stock Exchange and president and CEO of his holding company Intercontinental Exchange, were scrutinized in March for businesses involving sales of securities of up to $ 3 million. dollars. These sales came just before stock market indices fell sharply in value in reaction to the spread of Covid in the US
The senator’s investment activities sparked investigations by the Justice Department, but prosecutors declined to file charges. Loeffler has repeatedly denied allegations of illegal or incorrect securities trading.
Loeffler promoted the CARES Act and the passage of the recent $ 900 billion Covid bill as proof that it provided much-needed help to troubled Georgians during the pandemic. He said Democrats halted efforts to approve an aid package earlier.
When Trump pushed for stimulus controls in excess of $ 2,000, Warnock took the opportunity to criticize Loeffler for opposing a larger direct payment previously in the Covid relief negotiations. Loeffler later broke with many Senate Republicans to support the president’s pressure to get direct payments of $ 2,000 to Americans.
The seat will be re-eligible in 2022 for a six-year term in the Senate.