The Stats mentioned at the end of the article have been update as of October 6, at 9:50 pm to better reflect the current race. As such, the numbers quoted in the physical version of the Bagpipe are no longer accurate. We apologize for any confusion.
On December 31, 2019, Senior U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) announced resignation from his third term as senator. Isakson’s resignation initiated a special election to take place on November 3, 2020, featuring six Republican candidates, eight Democrats, one Libertarian, one from the Green Party and five Independents. Senators hold office for six-year terms. Senate elections take place every two years with one-third of seats up for contest, ensuring routine turnover in the Senate.
The election on November 3 will likely feature a runoff between some pair of the officially endorsed candidates. The Republican candidates are Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins, and the Democratic candidates are Raphael Warnock and Matt Lieberman. As of January 6, 2020, Kelly Loeffler has officially served as senator in place of Isakson, and will run in the November election in an attempt to secure the remainder of the term.
The election is a nonpartisan blanket primary. This means that all candidates run against each other concurrently. The candidate with more than 50% of the votes will take the seat. If no candidate wins an absolute majority, a runoff election will be held in January 2021.
On September 15, student representatives from six Georgia universities including Covenant College met with the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and U.S. Senate candidate Reverend Raphael Warknock to hear the Reverend give his stance on issues such as social justice, education and voting rights.
Warnock is eleventh of twelve children and first in his family to graduate from college. He grew up in Savannah, Georgia, before attending Morehouse College, alma mater to Martin Luther King, Jr. After graduating from Morehouse in 1991, Warnock pursued multiple graduate degrees, including a Master of Divinity.
As a candidate for the Democratic seat, Warnock widely endorses Democrat ideals, including affordable health care and Medicaid expansion, support for LGBTQ rights and higher minimum wage for the working class. Recently, Warnock was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBTQ political advocacy group. Additional measures Warnock upholds are the decriminalization of marijuana, bail reform and police reform.
In a comment about U.S. prison systems, Warnock named the country “overly punitive” in its actions. Regarding bail, he said, “We need bail reform: people should not be in jail simply because they cannot afford to pay the bail.”
On prison reform, Warnock said, “I do not think that we should defund the police, but we do need to reset the relationship between the police and other communities; and we need to stop trying to police mental health issues and issues that are better addressed through social services and a whole range of supports that would suggest that we are an enlightened society that embraces all of its citizens.”
When asked what police reform could look like at the local level, Warnock said, “Community policing works. Policing goes better when the police have a relationship with the communities that they are protecting and serving.” He added, “I’m interested in the demilitarization of our police departments and more community policing; we need uniform standards for the use of forces, and we ought to eliminate qualified immunity.” In a final comment on police reform, Warnock said, “Certainly we need police bias training and racial sensitivity.”
To combat issues of social justice in Georgia communities, Warnock holds that part of the answer is in the investment of young people. He emphasized the need to “create the pipeline that gets young people, regardless of their income, in the places that they need to be so that they can pursue higher ed.” Later he added, “A young person’s outcome should not be determined by their parent’s income.” This reflects Warnock’s position that access to quality education should not be determined by zip code.
Warnock’s efforts to promote education also extend to education beyond high school. Warnock seeks to promote Pell grants for students, supply low-interest loans and strengthen student loan forgiveness programs to reduce the U.S.’s $1.6 trillion in national student debt.
Rev. Warnock will face strong opposition in his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in a majority-red state. FiveThirtyEight forecasts the reverend’s chance of winning to be just 23% against other candidates. Republican Kelly Loeffler is projected to win with 44% of votes. Republican Doug Collins is predicted to place second with 32% of votes. A runoff election remains an option on the table if no candidate gets a majority.