Rev. Raphael Warnock on Senate win: ‘I’m deeply honored’

ATLANTA — Reverend Raphael Warnock appeared on Good Morning America Wednesday morning just hours after ABC News and the Associated Press projected him to win one of Georgia’s two Senate seats.

Warnock describes the win as “historic” as he is set to become the first Black Senator from Georgia.

“Certainly this is a historic moment and I’m just deeply grateful to be a vessel in a moment in which we’re facing such large problems in our country, and I can’t wait to get to the U.S. Senate to represent the concerns of ordinary people,” Warnock told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” Wednesday.

Just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, ABC News projected that Warnock prevailed over incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat by Gov. Brian Kemp in December 2019 to serve when Sen. Johnny Isakson retired until a special election was held to determine who would serve until his term ends in Jan. 2023.

[LIVE UPDATES: Warnock projected winner, Ossoff leads Perdue in tight race]

Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the former pulpit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is only the 11th Black senator elected in the country’s history.

“I’m deeply honored that the people of Georgia decided to place their faith in me and have decided to send me to represent their interests in Washington, D.C.,” Warnock said.

[IN DEPTH: Raphael Warnock will be Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, only 1 of 11 ever]

His win is also history-defying because it marks the first time a Democrat has won a statewide runoff election in Georgia in 30 years. Stephanopoulos asked Warnock what impact he thought President Donald Trump’s constant questioning of the general election results and rhetoric that it was “rigged” had on his runoff campaign.

GOP concerns mounted early, and never subsided before the election, that Trump’s rhetoric of a “rigged” election would suppress Republican voters from coming out. Loeffler and the other GOP candidate competing in a runoff, former Sen. David Perdue, were in lockstep with the president through the two-month sprint to the runoff.

Warnock said he would leave it to the “pundits who slice and dice” to pontificate on that, telling Stephanopoulos that he’s “really focused on the people here in this state.”

[EXPLAINER: Georgia’s role in balance of power for U.S. Senate]

“The Senate should have approved the $2,000 stimulus last week. People are really struggling,” he said.

Asked what his number one goal for this year in the Senate was, Warnock said, as he had throughout his campaign, that the country needs to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.

“Like so many Americans as we witnessed the incredible death toll over 350,000 Americans lost lives, lost livelihoods we need a national strategy that takes this virus seriously, that gets the vaccine distributed safely and efficiently,” he said. “We’ve got to re-open our economy, kid our kids safely back to school and make sure that people know that they will have their health care, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.”

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Information from the Good Morning America was used in this report

RAW VIDEO: Raphael Warnock thanks his supporters in virtual speech Raphael Warnock thanks his supporters in virtual speech

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