Raphael Warnock, a son of Savannah public housing who rose to become Georgia’s first Black senator, secured a full six-year term and a spot among Democrats’ rising stars.
How Alvin the Beagle Helped Usher In a Democratic Senate
Senator Raphael Warnock was sworn in this week as Georgia’s first Black senator, and he arrived with a canny canine assist.
Senator Raphael Warnock and Alvin the beagle during the production of his campaign ad.Credit.Warnock for Georgia
The dog had a lot of work to do.
He was co-starring in a political ad that had to showcase the candidate’s good-natured warmth. But the ad also needed to deflect an onslaught of racialized attacks without engaging them directly, and to convey to white voters in Georgia that the Black pastor who led Ebenezer Baptist Church could represent them, too.