Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website. Political Note #359 Maggie Hassan US Senate New Hampshire, Political Note #365 Catherine Cortez Masto US Senate Nevada, Political Note #364 Jana Lynne Sanchez TX 06 Special Election, Multi-party Primary on May 1, 2021.
Political Note #379 Raphael Warnock Georgia US Senate
2022 General Election
These days, Georgia is on everyone’s mind. Georgia was on Donald Trump’s mind: “I just want 11,780 votes” he told the Georgia Secretary of State. Alone, an additional 11,780 votes to flip Georgia’s 20 electoral votes would not have been enough to make him President. Trump would have needed 10,458 additional votes to flip Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes and 20,683 additional votes to flip Wisconsins’ 10 Electoral College votes.
Georgia was on Chuck Schumer’s mind. Georgia gained control of the US Senate for Democrats. Georgia had two Senate elections in November, 2020. Both had January, 2021 run offs. Incumbent David Perdue led Jon Ossoff in the regular election, but he didn’t get the 50% he needed to be the outright winner according to Georgia law. Perdue lost to Jon Ossoff by 55,232 votes in the run off.
The other was a special election. It was different from the first election and the same. The November special election was a multi-party primary. If a candidate got over 50%, he or she was elected. No one did. In the January runoff, Raphael Warnock https://warnockforgeorgia.com defeated the incumbent Kelly Loeffler by 93,550 votes. A bigger victory than Jon Ossoff’s victory. Way bigger than Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
The Georgia Senate elections gave the US Senate a 50-50 divide. Since the Vice President was a Democrat, Georgia’s results, in effect, gave the Democrats 51 votes so long as the Democrats stuck together. Getting them to stick together is Chuck Schumer’s job.
The Republican Georgia legislature decided to fix the embarrassment of the Presidential and Senatorial losses. The Governor signed their surprise bill into law.
- The law made absentee and early voting harder. A higher percentage of African Americans and a higher percentage of Democrats vote absentee and/or early than Republicans and/or whites. Many assume that one purpose of the law was to reduce the number of African Americans and/or Democrats who vote in elections.
- The law set the run offs to occur four weeks after the general election rather than eleven weeks afterwards. The Georgia legislature may have been attempting to remedy what they saw as an unfairness. Jon Ossoff had fewer votes than David Perdue in the General Election, but with 11 weeks to organize, he was able to gain a majority in the runoff.
- The law gave greater control over the election process to the legislature, reducing the authority of the Secretary of State (The man who refused Donald Trump’s plea to find 11,780 votes.) If the Georgia legislature had enough authority, would it have figured out a way to find those 11,780 votes?
Will the election changes make it harder for the African-America Democrat Raphael Warnock to get reelected in 2022? Most people think it will, but not all. Nate Cohn of the New York Times suggested the law could invigorate Democrats to get out more voters. Whether Nate Cohn is right or not, Raphael Warnock will need every bit of help he can get to win in 2022.
When he decided to run for the Senate, Raphael Warnock was the Senior Pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. There is no more important African-American religious post. Only a few American religious posts are as important. Ebenezer Baptist of Atlanta has had five Senior Pastors since it was founded in 1886. Martin Luther King, Sr. became Senior Pastor in 1927. Martin Luther King, Jr. became Co-Senior Pastor in 1960 and remained in that role until his death in 1968. Raphael Warnock became Ebenezer Baptists’ youngest ever Senior Pastor in 2005.
Despite being born to poverty, The Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock has earned a pedigree. Consciously following in Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps, he attended and graduated from Morehouse University, an Historically Black College in Atlanta. An all-men’s school, it is affiliated with other African American colleges in the city, including the all-women Spelman College.
The Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock has a Master’s Degree and Doctorate from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. The Union Theological Seminary, is the oldest seminary in the United States not attached to a specific religious movement. It has been a center of learning and of liberal theology. Its affiliations are academic. The Union Theological Seminary has ties with its neighbors in Manhattan’s Upper West Side — Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Raphael Warnock was the eleventh child in a blended family of twelve children. Poor, they lived in public housing, the Kayton Homes in Savanna, Georgia. As many as ten members of the family lived in four rooms at the same time. His parents were Pentecostal preachers, members of an evangelical movement distinguished for, among other things, women preachers. His dad also had a business, one based on the auto mechanics and welding he learned in the army. He restored and sold junked cars.
Raphael Warnock attributes his success to his parents’ love and faith. He spreads the credit around. He is appreciative of the Upward Bound Program at Savanna State College. It helped make him feel ready and be ready for college. He financed college, in part, through Pell Grants, grants originally created in 1965. (Give partial credit for one African-American Southern US Senator interested in social justice to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society).
Although his father and his father’s church were important for Raphael Warnock’s developing views of Christianity, he was particularly moved by Martin Luther King, Jr. In his youth, he memorized King’s sermons and probably could map the sites of his activism. (Give partial credit for one African-American Southern US Senator interested in social justice to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s national moral leadership.)
Raphael Warnock is an ambitious man. He committed himself to important churches and important places. He was ordained at and stayed for six years at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama – ten blocks from where the four girls were killed by KKK bombers. Raphael Warnock spent four years as youth pastor and assistant pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York. This was Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.’s church, a place to learn how a pastor combines a Black church and politics. Raphael Warnock was Senior Pastor at the Douglas Memorial Church in Baltimore for four years before his appointment in Atlanta.
In each of these churches, Raphael Warnock reckoned with the dual purpose of the black church – spiritual nurturance and activism. He was a traditional preacher as a matter of course. In addition, In Baltimore, he was arrested for intervening to ensure children interviewed by police investigating a claim of child abuse at a religious camp had an adult and, if possible, an attorney with them for the interview. In Harlem, the church refused to hire workfare participants in opposition to Mayor Giuliani’s plan that required work from welfare recipients. At Ebenezer Baptist, he brought refugees from Hurricane Katrina back to New Orleans to vote. He was arrested in a campaign to get the Georgia legislature to accept expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. He also worked with parishioners on financial literacy.
Raphael Warnock had been at Ebenezer Baptist for fifteen years when he was elected to the US Senate in 2020. He was thirty-five when he began at the church in Atlanta, a little over 50 when he was elected to the US Senate. His widely used book is about the tension between the two purposes of the black church – The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety & Public Witness – was published in 2013, eight years after he began as Senior Pastor in Atlanta.
The role of women was central to Raphael Warnock’s thinking in this book. David Penno, in Ministry magazine in 2016, wrote that Raphael Warnock identified four moments in the history of the Black church and a fifth moment coming. The four were 1) the liberationist faith developed under slavery, 2) the creation of a liberationist church after the end of slavery, 3) the church-led liberationist movement during the civil rights era, and 4) the creation of a conscious liberationist theology. The fifth and coming moment was the growth of an egalitarian liberationist community – egalitarian would include all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. Raphael Warnock wrote there was a great need in this church whose membership was 70% women for “womanist theologians” who could draw on their experiences to create that egalitarian liberationist community.
Raphael Warnock’s political views reflect his egalitarian goal. The most controversial aspect of that view during the Senate campaign were the number of pastors who urged him, without success, to reconsider his support for the legality of abortion. His Senate campaign in 2020 was, of course, against a female incumbent. Kelly Loeffler, owner of the Atlanta WNBA franchise, had instructed her basketball players to stay away from the Black Lives Matter movement. The Atlanta Dream basketball players did what they could to undermine Loeffler’s campaign and to support Raphael Warnock for the US Senate. After the election, Loeffler sold the team.
As for an egalitarian view of women in his personal life, his mother is still preaching and one of his sisters is a pastor. Raphael Warnock is supportive of both. He married a determinedly independent woman – Ouleye Ndoya. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Spelman who, among other things, has worked to eliminate the trafficking of girls in Africa. Their divorce was, however, angry and bitter. She raised questions about his treatment of her.
Raphael Warnock has been a crucial vote in the Senate – supporting Joe Biden’s nominees, supporting the Covid Relief Bill. Kelly Loeffler, his opponent in the January runoff, would have opposed both. His position on gun safety came up in the campaign. In a sermon he opposed Georgia’s law that allows concealed or openly carried guns in church. He said, to great laughter, that whoever thought it was a good idea for people to have guns in church had never been to a heated church meeting. The NRA complained that Americans defending themselves was no laughing matter.
The 2020 Senate Campaign in Georgia was expensive. Kelly Loeffler raised and spent $92 Million. Raphael Warnock raised and spent $124 Million. (The candidates for the regular Senate election actually spent about 10% more.). With one Senate seat in play in Georgia in 2022, Raphael Warnock will need to raise and spend more than he did in 2020. Early money means a lot. Help him now. Donate to Raphael Warnock https://warnockforgeorgia.com. Donate as if your way of life depends on what happens in this election. He needs our help just as we need his.
The Cook Report projects the following incumbent Democratic Senators as Likely, or Leaning Democrat for 2022 rather than Solidly Democratic.
Arizona Mark Kelly (Likely D) https://markkelly.com
Georgia Raphael Warnock (Lean D) https://warnockforgeorgia.com
Nevada Catherine Cortez Maestro https://catherinecortezmasto.com (Likely D)
New Hampshire Maggie Hassan (Likely D) https://maggiehassan.com
There are no Democratic retirements.
As we learn who the Democratic candidates are, we can focus on helping them defeat Republican Targets. First protect incumbents, then win some Republican seats.
Alabama Richard Shelby is retiring. The seat is Open (Solid R)
Florida Marco Rubio is a target (Likely R)
Missouri Roy Blunt is retiring. The seat is Open. (Solid R)
North Carolina Richard Burr is retiring. The seat is Open. (Toss Up)
Ohio Rob Portman is retiring. The seat is Open. (Lean R)
Pennsylvania Pat Toomey is retiring. The seat is Open. (Toss Up)
Wisconsin Ron Johnson is a target (Lean R)
Organizations to support as well
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) https://www.dscc.org The campaign arm of the Democratic US Senators.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC). https://democrats.org The official organization of the Democratic Party.
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com Promotes fair elections around the country
A Special Election Coming Up
The TX 06 multi-party primary is on May 1. Jana Lynne Sanchez could use every bit of help you can provide. Getting a Democrat into the run off creates the possibility of adding to the slim Democratic majority in the current Congress and creates momentum for retaining and even expanding a Democratic majority in the next Congress. Add to Jana Lynne Sanchez’ resources https://www.janasanchez.com
A Special Interest of Mine
If you live in Part A of the district, please support and vote for Rebecca Weintraub in the June 23 Democratic Primary. If you know people who live in the district, please encourage them to vote for her, New York City has its own small town politics. Many of the readers of Lenspoliticalnotes are New Yorkers. Some may live in or know people in Part A of Assembly District 76 (roughly east of 3rd Avenue and south of 79th Street to and including Roosevelt Island).
We and the other Democratic Club in District 76 are supporting Rebecca Weintraub’s candidacy to be one of four leaders of the 76th Assembly District — the female leader of Part A of Assembly District 76. District Leaders are a kind of liaison between political parties and the community. You can learn more about her at her Website www.VoteRebecca.nyc or at Twitter @RSWinNYC or at Instagram /RSW_in_NYC or at Facebook /VoteRebeccatraub. In her non-political life, she is Vice President of a public relations firm, mother of Benjamin, and wife of Evan. In her political life, she has been an active member of our club, a leader in an innovative effort collecting video responses from NYC candidates for public office used to assess who to endorse and who to vote for.
