Pastor makes history by becoming the first Black senator in Georgia

Raphael Warnock has made history this week after being projected to become the first-ever black senator in the state of Georgia.

Warnock has been predicted to win the Georgia runoff this year by multiple news outlets, such as CNN, the Associated Press, and Fox News, among others.

The pastor, who has spent the past 15 years leading the same church in Atlanta where civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once preached, has been projected to defeat the Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler in the runoffs.

This will also make him the first Georgia Democrat elected to the Senate in 20 years.

Meanwhile, per a report by BBC News, the second race in the state between 77-year-old Republican candidate David Perdue and 33-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff is currently tied almost neck-and-neck.

Per the Associated Press, the 51-year-old pastor acknowledged his projected victory in a message to his supporters on Wednesday, January 6, and thanked his elderly mother, among others, for voting for him.

Warnock stated:

"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. Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible.

However, much like incumbent President Donald Trump, Loeffler has thus far refused to concede the election. Per AP News, she told Warnock in an official statement that:

"We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election. We are going to keep fighting for you. This is about protecting the American dream."

Per CNN, in a statement made on Monday, January 4, Loeffler said:

"The American people deserve a platform in Congress, permitted under the Constitution, to have election issues presented so that they can be addressed."

It should be noted that, much like in the 2020 US Presidential election, there are still some mail ballots and in-person early votes left to be counted across the length and breadth of the state, so Warnock's victory is not yet totally assured.