Twelve percent of Democrats ranked inflation as their top-five issue, while 73 percent of Republicans put it as theirs. Those at Ebenezer know it’s because the same issues playing out nationally are felt more acutely here.A recent Quinnipiac poll showed Georgians ranking inflation as their top issue, with a 29-point lead over the next one, abortion. Georgia’s Senate race has remained close for months, with Warnock holding a slight - but far from sure - advantage. Raphael Warnock's books are displayed in a case at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “It makes no sense whatsoever to have a person who’s unqualified and unethical, has no knowledge of that position, does not know what to do - would not know what to do. “People will vote for party over policy and decisions that’s going to impact people,” Bolton says. But the good church folk will only do it implicitly. She says Warnock has never had to choose that since he was elected to the Senate, he’s “never really been absent from duty.” For her and many others in the church, Warnock serves as a symbol of what a good Christian looks like: fighting for the least among them and spreading the Gospel.Īnd while they prop up and defend Warnock, they are also on the offense, attacking Walker, without prompting. “We’ve always been involved in the political.”īrunette Bolton, a 42-year vet of Ebenezer, agrees. “We say ‘separate church and state,’ but we know that everything that we have has come from the church, and all the things that we have that are good have come from the church as a people ,” says Peggy Lucas, who’s been worshiping at Ebenezer since 1978. There’s simply no disconnecting them from each other: the political and the religious are intrinsically linked here. The civil rights movement was driven by - and organized in - churches like this one throughout the South. For them, their church’s legacy is directly tied to politics. As they say goodbye after services, they don’t see the split between Warnock’s two important jobs. The switch was official, putting overt politics back on the menu. The shirt and tie were gone, replaced with a black shirt with a rainbow-hued “W” - his campaign logo - on it. Warnock was sitting in a pink convertible at the Atlanta Pride Parade with Georgia’s other senator, Jon Ossoff. “I ain’t tell you to vote for me,” Warnock said.

The service lasted for about an hour, and Warnock ended with a plea to the congregation to pray and vote. Thinly veiled political speech throughout sermons is not new for members of Ebenezer Baptist Church politics is no novelty in the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. “See verse two and hear Him say, ‘Child of God, you are the blessed beneficiary of a comprehensive health care plan,’” Warnock said. Warnock mentioned the importance of fighting climate change and used health care policy as a metaphor to describe God’s promises. “So people may think, ‘Oh, he’s just doing that.’ But he always has.” Warnock’s “preaching always had a bit of politics in it,” one long-time church member said after service. For church members, it’s not new - politics is no novelty in the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. Thinly veiled political speech was lightly sprinkled throughout the sermon.

Warnock preached compassion, about a God “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”Īnd though the congregation may not want to broach politics with a reporter, the two Warnocks are clearly working in concert. If Warnock’s campaign is going to be on the attack, she and others say, it needs to portray Walker as emblematic of larger trends in the Republican Party.Īt Ebenezer, Rev. Ain’t that what they think about us anyway?”īrown believes that Democrats’ time would be better spent centering Warnock, because voters’ feelings about Walker have solidified. A Black man, not taking care of his children. A Black man being flawed, a Black man not having integrity. “Their sole focus on as an individual is not working,” LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the voting rights groups Black Voters Matter based out of Atlanta, told POLITICO. There is plenty that Democrats see as disqualifying in Walker: One ad highlights claims from his ex-wife that he held a gun to her head. But they don’t have anything really good to say.

They understand Walker is the big bad wolf. “There could be a misstep here in trying to disqualify Walker so much and not to requalify what Warnock has actually done,” one Democratic pollster told POLITICO.

Raphael warnock legacy tyranny