ICYMI: Reverend Warnock Continues “One More Time” Runoff Tour - Warnock for Georgia

ICYMI: Reverend Warnock Continues “One More Time” Runoff Tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2022 
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ICYMI: Reverend Warnock Continues “One More Time” Runoff Tour

Amy Powers, Cherokee County Voter: “I’ve fallen in love with [Warnock’s] passion. The competency and the character that he has is off the chain, and there’s no question that he’s the right choice.”

Atlanta, GA — This weekend, Reverend Warnock continued his “One More Time” runoff tour with stops in suburbs outside of Atlanta, where he encouraged Georgians to vote on or by December 6th in the runoff election. 

Reverend Warnock held meet and greets in Gwinnett County, Forsyth County, and Cherokee County, hosted a canvass launch in Sandy Springs, and hosted a Students for Warnock rally at Emory University. 

Reverend Warnock hosted a meet and greet in Gwinnett County.

Reverend Warnock hosted a canvass launch in Sandy Springs.

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Watch Fox 5 Atlanta’s Coverage HERE

Rob DiRienzo, Fox 5: “Here in Sandy Springs, Walker’s Democratic challenger, Senator Raphael Warnock, is rallying supporters outside the North Fulton Democratic headquarters before sending them out the door to go canvass on his behalf. He then will go to counties including Forsyth and Gwinnett.”

Reverend Warnock: “Now that we are in this runoff election, it is really about the ground game. It is about showing up.”

The Atlanta Voice: Warnock on Saturday voting decision: ‘I’ll tell you who won yesterday, the people of Georgia won.’

  • At a get-out-the-vote rally and canvassing event this afternoon in Sandy Springs, Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) addressed the recent decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox to allow counties to begin early voting for the upcoming runoff election on Saturday.
  • “The ruling is about the people of Georgia,” said Warnock. “Yesterday’s ruling was a win for democracy.” The decision to begin early voting on Saturday will fall to the individual counties.
  • “Nothing could be more important than giving the people an opportunity to use their voices.”
  • “Saturday voting matters because without it there is a disadvantage to working-class people, to wage earners, to students, to people who have children, single parents who work two or three jobs. Saturday voting for them is not a convenience, it is a necessity.”
  • When asked if that even matters to voters at this point, Warnock said of his opponent Herschel Walker, “He has been campaigning for over a year, and he hasn’t offered a single solution.”
  • “He’s talked about a whole range of things, yesterday he was talking about werewolves and vampires, maybe he has a health care plan for them since he doesn’t have one for Georgians.”

Reverend Warnock hosted a meet and greet in Forsyth County.

Reverend Warnock hosted a meet and greet in Cherokee County.

Cherokee Tribune & Ledger News: Warnock brings Senate runoff campaign to Woodstock

  • Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff election is about two things, Sen. Raphael Warnock told supporters Saturday in Woodstock: competency and character.
  • Warnock, the Democratic senator in a bid for reelection against Republican challenger and former University of Georgia football player Herschel Walker, made a stop outside Allen Temple AME Church during his runoff bus tour.
  • A spokesperson for the Warnock campaign said about 300 people were in attendance at the event.
  • “Fundamentally, it’s about who’s ready and who’s fit to represent the 11 million people in the state of Georgia for the next six years in the United States Congress,” Warnock said. “You need somebody with competence. You need somebody with character who will actually tell you the truth.”
  • He urged attendees to tell family and friends to vote, saying, “Tell them there’s too much on the line to stay home. Tell them there’s too much at stake… and the differences between me and my opponent are too wide.”
  • “Herschel Walker said he was a police officer, said he’s in law enforcement. He’s not. And when we confronted him about it, he literally wore his lie as a badge of honor,” Warnock said, referring to Walker displaying an honorary sheriff’s badge at a televised debate.
  • The senator touted his record, including sponsoring legislation to cap the costs of insulin for Medicare patients.
  • Warnock told supporters he has a history of working across the aisle with Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who was in Canton nine days before to stump for Walker. Walker pointed to the infrastructure bill, the PACT Act for veterans, and bills on gun control, maternal mortality, agriculture and making railway crossings safer as results of his bipartisan work.
  • The senator also acknowledged that he was visiting a county that historically has voted solidly Republican — while Warnock led Walker statewide with 49.44% of the vote, in Cherokee, Walker had 67.55% of the vote, according to results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.
  • “I know where I am. And I came here on purpose. Because the United States senator represents the whole state,” he said. “I love all of Georgia, and I’m proud to represent Georgia. And I’ll tell you something else: I actually live in Georgia. Georgia’s on my mind.”
  • Amy Powers from Woodstock, said Warnock’s speech was “inspirational.” “I’ve fallen in love with his passion,” she said while waiting in line for a photo with the senator. “The competency and the character that he has is off the chain, and there’s no question that he’s the right choice.”
  • Amanda Wicker said she agreed with the senator’s remarks, especially about maternal mortality, saying Georgia and the U.S.’s rates are “unconscionable” and “we owe it to our women and children to do better.”
  • “This is an excellent turnout in cold weather, the weekend before Thanksgiving, to turn out and see the senator,” she said. “Just that he would come to the cities here in Cherokee County. It’s such a reliably red county, but we are making strides to turn this county more purple.”

Reverend Warnock hosted a Students for Warnock rally at Emory University.

The Emory Wheel: Warnock encourages students to vote in upcoming runoff in Emory speech

  • Young Democrats of Emory hosted Warnock in the University’s Mathematics and Science Center auditorium to promote voting before the upcoming runoff.
  • In addition to attending Morehouse, he said he’s consistently sought to put Kings’ values into practice, citing his arrest in 1999 for civil disobedience while protesting four New York City police officers killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant. 
  • These experiences were also with him, Warnock said, when he was on the ballot for Georgia Senator over 20 years later. Warnock said he didn’t take the opportunity for granted — when he was elected, he thought about the struggles he overcame as a kid that some Georgians are still facing today.
  • “When I looked up and saw that a kid who grew up in public housing was sitting in the Oval Office looking the President of the United States in the eye, I wasn’t busy congratulating myself for being there,” Warnock said. “I thought about the fact that when I went to Morehouse, I didn’t have enough money for the first semester.”
  • Anish Nashine (24B) said that it is rare for a senator to connect with younger students like Warnock did during his speech.
  • “The way that he was able to relate to us as young people and college students was really riveting,” Nashine said. “The way that he was able to connect to his own experiences as a college student was honestly something that was really inspiring, and it made him seem like a lot more personable.”
  • Young Democrats of Emory Vice President Divya Kishore (23C) believes that it is possible for Warnock to win again if Emory students vote early. “I just would really call on people to vote and show the world again that Georgia can turn blue, and it can turn blue largely because of Emory students,” Kishore said.
  • He pointed out that while he supports access to reproductive healthcare and abortion, particularly in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s downfall, Walker is strongly against abortion.
  • Additionally, Sultan Minhas (22C) said he believes Warnock received the “largest cheers” when discussing abortion because “that’s an issue that really invigorates a lot of us young folks.” 
  • Warnock also discussed his commitment to making college more affordable, citing the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act of 2021 that he co-sponsored. Warnock also told the Wheel that he has secured a total of $6 billion for historically Black colleges and universities during his tenure. 
  • “This is the work that I’m committed to doing: standing up for the next generation as you push us closer towards our ideals, standing up for workers, standing up for those who live on the margins of our society, standing up for the dreamers for whom this country is the only country that they’ve ever known,” Warnock said as students applauded.
  • The incumbent senator also discussed two bills he introduced, one to cap the cost of insulin at $35 for people on Medicare and another to place limits on the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
  • Raeyan Syed (24C) said that out of Warnock’s speech, his commitment to lowering insulin prices resonated with her the most. 
  • “That was something that hits close to home because my family members have diabetes,” Syed said. “I know they’ve really thought a lot about how that price has been increasing, so it was nice to hear that change is being made.”
  • After the event, Young Democrats of Emory President Ash Shankar (23B) told the Wheel that Warnock’s speech seemed to resonate with the crowd, as he tapped into causes that are important to college students. “Senator Warnock killed it,” Shankar said. “He spoke to the students very directly about why this election matters and the stakes that are up for grabs at this point with the Senate seat.”
  • Warnock emphasized the importance of college-aged voters, saying that he will not be able to continue fighting for change if younger Georgians do not make it to the polls on Dec. 6. He encouraged students frustrated with the current political climate not to grow impatient and fall into a trap of “nihilism and passivity.” Rather, students’ impatience should fuel their commitment to keep fighting for change, even when it feels like they’re moving backwards, Warnock said.
  • “Democracy expands and then it contracts … and it’s frustrating, but any mother will tell you that contractions are necessary for new birth,” Warnock said. “Out of this tense and difficult moment, it is your turn to make a difference. You are the latest generation of Americans who get to decide that we are indeed going to move closer towards our ideals.”
  • Natasha Rasnick (25C) echoed these sentiments, describing the right to vote as “constitutional.” “It is your chance to get people to listen and to change the future,” Rasnick said. “If you’re not voting, then you’re not using your voice, and especially this election, there are some issues that could really define the future.”
  • Young voters played a vital role in electing Warnock and Ossoff in 2021. Warnock emphasized the historical importance of the election, as he and Ossoff were the first Black man and Jewish man to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, respectively. 
  • “Georgia, a state in the old Confederacy and the cradle of the Civil Rights movement, in a moment when folks at the highest levels of our government were trying to divide us and stir up the old demons of bigotry and antisemitism and racism, while they were doing that, Georgia was standing up and sending us to the Senate,” Warnock said.
  • Warnock noted the irony that the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection fell the day after he and Ossoff were elected. He called the event a “violent assault,” alleging that it was based on “the big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former U.S. President Donald Trump.
  • “We’re somewhere between our hopes and our fears, those who want to divide us and those who want to push us closer towards our ideals,” Warnock said. “I choose Jan. 5. I choose a day when a kid who grew up in public housing can serve in the United States Senate next to a Jewish young man.”
  • Before Warnock could finish his sentence, his voice was drowned out by the audience’s applause.
  • Warnock ended his speech by reflecting on the historic April 7 confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is the first Black woman to serve in the U.S. Supreme Court. He said that during the event, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told him to mark the occasion by writing a letter to “somebody who comes to mind.” 
  • It didn’t take him long to decide on writing to his then-five-year-old daughter Chloé. Warnock recounted the letter to the crowd. 
  • “Dear Chloé, today we confirmed to the United States Supreme Court Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Warnock said. “In the long history of our nation, she is the first Supreme Court Justice who looks like you, with hair like yours.”
  • Warnock continued, remembering that he told his daughter that Harris is also the first U.S. vice president who looks like her.
  • “I write this letter to say that, in America, you can be and you can achieve anything you set your head and your heart to do,” Warnock recounted. 
  • However, Warnock said he was not only thinking of Chloé as he wrote the letter — he was thinking about “all our daughters” and “all our sons,” saying that the United States can only reach its full potential if every child can “live up to their promise” without being limited by race, gender, sexual orientation or class. Warnock encouraged students to keep this in mind as they vote in the runoff election.
  • “Over the next two and a half weeks, I want you to recognize that you’re doing more than putting a check next to a name in a ballot box,” Warnock said. “What you do in this moment is a letter to the future.”

Reverend Warnock spoke at The Pinky Cole Experience Tour in Atlanta to remind audience members to vote early.

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