It’s easy enough to cover the numerous lies, missteps, and total chaos of the Herschel Walker campaign—and we’ve covered much of it. But, what gets lost in highlighting the candidate who’s clearly ill-prepared for the job is the incredible job the incumbent Democratic senator has been doing since being elected in 2021.
Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, 53, was elected to the Senate in January 2021 in a special election. He currently serves on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, as well as the Special Committee on Aging and the Joint Economic Committee.
Warnock has served for the past 16 years as senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the pulpit once graced by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Born the 11th of 12 children, Warnock is the 11th Black U.S. senator in history. He grew up in a housing project in Savannah, Georgia. His parents were Pentecostal pastors. He was elected class president in high school and voted “Most Likely to Succeed.” For college, Warnock followed in King’s footsteps and attended Morehouse in Atlanta. He went on to earn a master’s degree in divinity and philosophy before starting work on a doctorate in systematic theology.
As a first-term senator, Warnock, along with fellow freshman Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, lobbied extensively to include two key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. The Capping Drug Costs for Seniors Act includes one bill that caps prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 a year and one that caps the cost of insulin at $35 per month for those on Medicare. Those provisions affect more than 1 million Georgia residents—12% of the state’s population—as well as all Americans on Medicare.
The Senate passed the behemoth 755-page bill—but the GOP blocked Warnock’s proposed $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs on insulin for folks on private insurance. It’s a win the GOP just could allow, particularly in an election year in a battleground state like Georgia, where Warnock is running for reelection.
In an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting News in August, Warnock said that his proposal became a “victim of politics” but highlighted the overall win, saying, “Medicare will be able to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, something that the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] has been doing for 30 years, which will help the pocketbooks of our seniors.”
Warnock has even managed to work with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Putting party politics aside and his state first, Warnock co-sponsored the Warnock-Cruz Amendment, a bipartisan infrastructure project connecting Georgia and Texas.
“My folks were asking, ‘Why would you work with him?’ Very simple. Senator Cruz wanted to build out this road in Texas — called I-14. Guess what? The same road that runs through Texas … runs through Georgia. Connects some of our military installations and critical parts of this state that could use the development,” Warnock said.
He added, “It goes through communities that are largely red and communities that are blue. It goes past,” he crescendoed, “people who worship at churches, and temples and mosques — all have to get on the same road! Folks who are going to work and the folks those folks work for — all have to get on the same road! In other words, if we build out the road, everybody can get to where they need to go! There is a road that runs through our humanity.”
In two years, Warnock, whose father was a veteran, has sponsored and co-sponsored numerous bills and resolutions. One bill that passed is SB 1031. It requires the Comptroller General of the U.S. to conduct a study on disparities associated with race and ethnicity with respect to certain benefits administered by the secretary of Veterans Affairs and for other purposes.
A champion for voting rights, Warnock has continued to further the work of the esteemed late Georgia stalwart, Rep. John Lewis, as the first Senator to sponsor both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
As we know, on Oct. 20, 2021, Senate Republicans blocked S.2747, known colloquially as the Freedom to Vote Act.
At the time, Warnock said, “While today’s vote may have failed, I remain steadfastly committed to passing voting rights legislation this Congress. Like my parishioner Congressman John Lewis, I believe that voting is a sacred undertaking, and we must keep marching until we secure the sacred right to vote for every eligible American.”
When it comes down to praising Warnock for his accomplishments, it can be difficult when Senate Republicans continue to block proposals and, therefore, progress itself. Who Warnock is can be seen by how he’s conducted himself during the campaign season, refusing to directly address his opponent’s trash-fire issues—reported domestic violence, a hypocritical abortion stance, and a steadfast disregard for the rights of people’s decisions about their own bodies.
Who Warnock is when he stands at the pulpit and who he’s been for much of his life in public service is what he should be commended for—and it’s why he is the best candidate to represent all the people of Georgia.
Daily Kos has identified three U.S. Senate seats that could flip from red to blue in 2022. Please donate $1 to each of these races right now.
And remember, like the good reverend and senator says… “Vote!”
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How should we be reading the 2022 polls, in light of shifting margins and past misses? In this episode of The Downballot, Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen joins us to explain how his firm weights polls to reflect the likely electorate; why Democratic leads in most surveys this year should be treated as smaller than they appear because undecided voters lean heavily anti-Biden; and the surprisingly potent impact abortion has had on moving the needle with voters despite our deep polarization.