Georgia U.S. Senate Candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock Explains How Trump's Presidency Challenges His Faith

Watch the interview on The Root

As pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, Rev. Raphael Warnock often gets asked what it is like to preach in the same pulpit as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his response is always the same: “I don’t know what it’s like to fill his shoes because I’ve never tried.”

But one person’s shoes Warnock is sure he can replace, in fact, are those of current U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who he hopes to defeat in a special election set for later this year in November. It is important to note that, because this is a special election, Warnock was not on the ballot in Georgia’s June primary. Loeffler was appointed to finish John Isakson’s term in 2020 after he resigned in 2019 for health reasons.

Now, Warnock is campaigning against her to fill that seat with current polls showing him as the top Democratic contender in a race with 20 other candidates of both parties. If no one garners more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two contenders will face each other in a runoff in January 2021. Rep. Doug Collins, a key Trump ally, is the other top Republican in the race.

Warnock talked to The Root about how his Christian faith informs his politics around healthcare, policing, Trump the LGBTQ+ community, which he fully supports and says the church should as well, and his views around women’s reproductive rights, which he says she be protected.