Say it Loud: SENATOR Rev. Raphael Warnock!

But: you can also learn about the racist history of the Georgia Runoff System

Dec 07, 2022

Issue #191 Education December 7, 2022

THANK YOU, GEORGIA!

Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, who defeated his Republican challenger two years ago for a two-year term, finally won a full six-year term in the United States Senate. Winning his fourth campaign in two years, he made history as the first African-American elected to a full Senate term in the state of Georgia, with a 51.3% - 48.7% final spread.

Georgia also made history two years ago by electing its first Jewish Senator, Jon Ossoff. He and Senator Warnock are truly a great team and they really consider themselves “brothers from another mother.” Senator Ossoff was trained by and worked for the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis.

Georgia is now represented in the Senate by two Democrats who are not white and/or Christian men! This would not have been possible just a few years ago for a former Confederate state.

No intrusive ads or annoying popups ever! Instead, please see the important information at the bottom of this post. That’s how we grow and sustain this publication. AND, please keep those “Likes” and comments coming! Thanks!

But, wait…there’s more

However, as Senator Warnock said in his acceptance speech, he won despite the ongoing voter suppression in Georgia.

Reverend Warnock is the youngest of twelve children, was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, and is still the Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta that was previously pastored by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He even preached the sermon last Sunday morning and then went on to hold about three more rallies later that day after holding four rallies the day before. The late Congressman John Lewis was part of Rev. Warnock’s congregation.

Many Democrats have been continually saying about the Warnock-Walker competition: How could the vote even be close with such a flawed and unqualified candidate like Hershel Walker?

We must remember Georgia is still a very red state that is slowly turning “light purple,” thanks in large part because of the on-the-ground work of Stacey Abrams. Most Georgia Republicans voted more for “the Republican” than for Hershel Walker himself.

Rev. Warnock beat Hershel Walker in the November general election, but because his final numbers were less than one point under 50%, the election went to a runoff. This particular runoff requirement was put in place way back in 1964 by an avowed segregationist named Denmark Groover, Jr., who wanted to split the Black vote.

When the Democrats were still primarily the party of the old racist South

Groover was an old-school Democrat (“Dixiecrat”) who was defeated by his opponent in his 1958 race for the U.S. Senate even though he won the white vote. His opponent had considerable Black support.

Groover decided that the way to neutralize the Black vote in Georgia was to propose the majority-vote runoff election rules that would apply to all local, state, and federal campaigns. Groover wanted to keep Black voters from voting for the same candidate or party more than once, versus the practice at the time where white voters in Georgia split their votes among multiple candidates.

According to Groover, in the plurality system, which would have elected Senator Warnock last November despite his less than 50% numbers, a Black candidate would not necessarily need a high number of white voters to win.

In 1990, the Department of Justice challenged this election run-off system and sued Georgia, saying that the system violated the Voting Rights Act and purposefully hurt Black political participation.

Later, as the lawsuit evolved and moved through the system, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1998 that the plaintiffs did not adequately prove that the plurality system would increase Black political voting numbers without the runoff system.

So that system is still in effect today in Georgia, and also in Louisiana, and that is why Rev. Warnock had to run four campaigns in two years.

There are many other reasons why Senator Warnock won on December 6, 2022, not the least of which is because of the broad-based, multiracial, multicultural, and multi-organizational coalition ground game developed over the past ten years by Stacy Abrams and others.

President Joe Biden wins again!

This is the first time since President Franklin D. Roosevelt that an incumbent president has not lost a single incumbent Senate seat.

Although the Democrats lost the House by just a few seats, this is also the first time that an incumbent president’s Congressional strength has not been “decimated” in the midterms as has historically happened.

In Georgia, Senator Warnock, although he recognized the national implications of his campaign, kept his campaign focused on Georgia and kept the Republicans from making this election a referendum on Joe Biden as they tried to do.

Additionally, although the ideal outcome would have been a minimum of 52 Democratic Senate seats to mitigate the damage that could (and often has) been done by Senators Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), having a 51-seat majority is still extremely important:

Many bills can be passed in the Senate with just a simple majority, which the Democrats now have.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can now appoint only Democrats as committee chairs; with the 50-50 Senate, the committee chairs also had to be split equally between Democrats and Republicans.
Joe Biden can more easily and quickly continue his record pace since 2021 of approving new Federal judges, most of whom have been Black women and members of other underrepresented groups.
The schedule for Madam Vice President Kamala Harris can be freed up because although she is still president of the Senate (the #1 job of all Vice Presidents), she won’t have to be present to cast the tie-breaking vote as she had to do so many times since 2021.
Having an actual Senate majority will also help to tamp down the threats from the House Republicans to try to impeach as many Democrats in leadership positions as they can. The Senate does not have to have a trial for any submitted Articles of Impeachment, and even several Republican Senators have stated that they don’t want to participate in the impeachment clown show planned by the House Republicans.

Paid Subscribers! Join us in our Chat Room to discuss the midterm elections!

Join the W.A.S. Chat

Georgia on Our Minds!

Tonight we Democrats are all happy and feel like singing “Georgia On My Mind” along with the late, great Ray Charles. Here is a video performance for you.

There are many benefits to using the W.A.S. app, including the ability to listen to our posts and podcast episodes straight from the app.

Available for iOS and Android

You can always leave any questions in the comments, or you can email us.

We Are Speaking

Discussion about this post