Raphael Warnock, the Democratic winner of one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate run-off races, made a triumphant speech early Wednesday morning, as he defeated Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) by 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, with nearly all of the state’s votes tallied.
In the video, Warnock, who will become the first Black senator to represent his state, spoke of his family’s experience with poverty, saying his mother used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager. “The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” the Baptist minister said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible.”
He added: “May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold of the American dream.”
Warnock did not declare victory outright but said, “I promise you this tonight—I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia.” Minutes earlier, Loeffler addressed supporters at a Republican Party event in Atlanta and insisted “we have a path to victory.”
Read it at AP
