<strong>Georgia in focus: </strong>Warnock’s fundraising is impressive, though the Democratic senator lacks the name recognition his scandal-prone opponent
Speakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr holiday celebration in Atlanta called on Monday for renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year that saw a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an insurrection on the US Capitol. “This King holiday has not only come at a time of great peril and physical violence, it has also come during a time of violence in our speech – what we say and how.
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Rev. Raphael G. Warnock (Curtis Compton/Getty Images)
After his landmark victory in the Georgia Senate race, the Rev. Raphael Warnock told CNN that he planned to return to his pulpit to preach the following Sunday. As the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the home church of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Warnock’s progressive faith was a consistent part of his campaign and a frequent point of attack. Now, as Georgia’s first Black senator-elect, he joins the state’s first Jewish senator-elect, Jon Ossoff, in breaking racial, political, and religious barriers. On CNN, Warnock invoked Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and King, two religious titans who marched together during the civil rights movement: “I think he and Dr. King are smiling in this moment.”
Ann Killion: WNBA and Atlanta Dream deserve credit for Raphael Warnock unseating Kelly Loeffler [San Francisco Chronicle]
Jan. 10 ”Overjoyed,” the former Cal basketball player said.
Clarendon watched the returns in Georgia’s U.S. Senate races at home in Oakland with their wife and 2-week-old infant, and witnessed what the WNBA helped achieve: The Rev. Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
“I was a little bit in shock at what we were able to accomplish,” Clarendon said. “To see the power that we have.”
The WNBA is owed a lot of credit for what happened in Georgia, where control of the Senate was flipped and the balance of power in Washington was shifted. Players in the league did not “shut up and dribble,” did not “stick to sports” but instead took an active stand to make a change.