Raphael Warnock

Warnock is from Savannah, Georgia. He grew up in public housing as the eleventh of twelve children born to Verlene and Jonathan Warnock, both Pentecostal pastors.[6] His father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he learned automobile mechanics and welding, and subsequently opened a small car restoration business where he restored junked cars for resale.[7]

Warnock graduated from Sol C. Johnson High School[8] and, having wanted to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., attended Morehouse College, from which he graduated cum laude in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.[9][10] He credits his participation in the Upward Bound program for making him college-ready, as he was able to enroll in early college courses through Savannah State University.[8][10] He then earned Master of Divinity, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary, a school affiliated with Columbia University.[11][12][7]

In the 1990s, Warnock served as the youth pastor and then assistant pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York.[13][14] While Warnock was pastor at Abyssinian, the church declined to hire workfare recipients as part of organized opposition to then-mayor Rudy Giuliani's workfare program.[15] The church also hosted Fidel Castro as a speaker on Oct. 22, 1995, while Warnock was the youth pastor there. There is no evidence Warnock was involved in the church's decision to host Fidel Castro. His campaign, during the 2020-21 United States Senate special election in Georgia, refused to say whether Warnock attended the event.[16]

In the 2000s, Warnock was senior pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Warnock and an assistant minister were arrested and charged with obstructing a police investigation into suspected child abuse at a church-run camp. The charges were later dropped with the deputy state's attorney's acknowledgment that it had been a "miscommunication", adding that Warnock had aided the investigation and that prosecution would be a waste of resources.[17][18] Warnock said he was only asserting that lawyers should be present during the interviews.[19] Warnock said that he had intervened to ensure that an adult was present while a juvenile suspect was being questioned.[20]

In 2005, Warnock became senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr.'s former congregation; he is the fifth and the youngest person to serve as Ebenezer's senior pastor since its founding.[8][21][22] Warnock has stated that he will continue in the post while serving in the Senate.[23]

As pastor, Warnock advocated for clemency for Troy Davis, who was executed in 2011.[24] In 2013, he delivered the benediction at the public prayer service at the second inauguration of Barack Obama.[25] After Fidel Castro died in 2016, Warnock told his church to pray for the Cuban people, calling Castro's legacy “complex, kind of like America’s legacy is complex.”[26] In March 2019, Warnock hosted an interfaith meeting on climate change at his church, featuring Al Gore and William Barber II.[27]

Warnock with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in 2009

Warnock came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leader in the campaign to expand Medicaid in the state.[28] In March 2014, Warnock led a sit-in at the Georgia State Capitol to press state legislators to accept the expansion of Medicaid offered by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[29] He and other leaders were arrested during the protest.[29][30] Warnock also actively campaigned for Georgia Democrats to increase outreach to low-income communities.[31] In 2015, Warnock considered running in the 2016 election for the United States Senate seat held by Johnny Isakson as a member of the Democratic Party.[32] He opted not to run.[33][34]

From June 2017 to January 2020, Warnock chaired the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan organization focused on voter registration.[35][21]

Warnock supports expanding the Affordable Care Act and has called for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.[36][28] He also supports increasing COVID-19-relief funding.[37] A proponent of abortion rights and gay marriage, he has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood.[38][39] He opposes the concealed carry of firearms, saying that religious leaders do not want guns in places of worship.[40] Warnock has long opposed the death penalty, having advocated for death row inmate Troy Davis, who was executed in 2011 for killing a police officer despite evidence that supported his innocence.[41][42]

Warnock married Oulèye Ndoye in a public ceremony on February 14, 2016; the couple had held a private ceremony in January.[9][66] They have two children. The couple separated in November 2019, and their divorce was finalized in 2020.[13] According to a police report, Ndoye accused Warnock of running over her foot with his car while trying to escape a heated argument about visiting relatives, but medical examiners found no signs of injury.[67] Body camera footage of a police interview during the incident was made public before the runoff election.[68]

• Warnock, Raphael G. (December 2013). The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 9780814794463. OCLC 844308880.

• List of African-American United States senators

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Raphael Warnock.

• Senator Raphael Warnock official U.S. Senate website
• Campaign website
• Biography at the Ebenezer Baptist Church
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress