Warnock reflects on his path from growing up in Georgia public housing to Senate

Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock (D) early Wednesday reflected on his path as a child who grew up in public housing in Georgia to becoming the first Black American to win election to the Senate in the Peach State.

“My roots are planted deeply in Georgia soil: A child who grew up in the Kayton Homes housing projects of Savannah, Georgia, number 11 out of 12 children, a proud graduate of Morehouse College and the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr. and Congressman John Lewis [D-Ga.],” Warnock said during an address he gave declaring victory in his bid to unseat Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.).

He added that the historic feat proves “anything is possible.” 

He also discussed his late father, Jonathan Warnock, who he noted was a veteran, a small-business owner and a pastor, as well as his mother, who, as “a teenager growing up in Waycross, Georgia, used to pick somebody else’s cotton.” 

“But the other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said.

“So, I come before you tonight as a man, who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here,” Warnock continued. “We were told that we couldn’t win this election. But tonight, we proved that, with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”

Warnock also discussed his deep roots in the Peach State and his mother’s past work picking cotton and tobacco during a rally with Democrat Senate candidate Jon Ossoff, whose runoff race in the state has not yet been called, on Monday and throughout his campaign.

After growing up in public housing in Savannah, Warnock went on to attend Morehouse College. He later earned a Ph.D. and became an ordained minister. He later became the youngest person to serve as senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. had also been a pastor. 

Multiple outlets projected the reverend winner of his race against Loeffler on early Wednesday. He will be the first Black American to represent Georgia in the Senate only the 11th in history to serve in the upper chamber.