Rev. Raphael Warnock
Senior Pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. United States Senator representing Georgia. Holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Systematic Theology.
Senator Warnock is a respected national leader in civil rights, social justice, and anti-corruption oversight. Rev. Warnock came to prominence in Georgia politics as a leading activist in the campaign to expand Medicaid in the state under the Affordable Care Act. He is the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate, and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from a Southern state.
He earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Systematic Theology. In 2013, he delivered the benediction at the public prayer service at the second inauguration of Barack Obama. He presided at Representative John Lewis's funeral at Ebenezer Church in July 2020. Rev. Warnock is a proponent of abortion rights, who describes himself as a "pro-choice pastor" and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood.
On February 13, 2021, Rev. Warnock voted to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting the January 6 United States Capitol attack. On March 5, 2021, Warnock and 29 other Democratic and independent senators co-sponsored an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. On March 17, 2021, he delivered his first speech on the Senate floor, in support of the passage of the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Raphael Warnock was a cosponsor of the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2022, a bipartisan bill that "requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a pilot grant program for improving recycling accessibility in communities." He told reporters that climate policy is a "moral" issue.
