A native of Savannah, Georgia, Reverend Raphael Warnock grew up in Kayton Homes public housing in a family that was short on money but long on faith, love and humor. Reverend Warnock and his eleven brothers and sisters were taught the meaning of hard work, and his parents, pastors Jonathan and Verlene Warnock, instilled a sense of service in him at a very young age.

Reverend Warnock’s father was an Army veteran, a small businessman, and a preacher. He spent the week hauling old cars to the local steel yard, and on Sundays he preached at a local church. Reverend Warnock’s mother grew up in Waycross, where she spent summers picking tobacco and cotton, and still lives in Savannah today. She worked hard to raise Raphael and his siblings to know that they could do anything they put their minds to.

The first in his family to graduate from college, Reverend Warnock was inspired by Dr. King’s teachings to attend Atlanta’s historic Morehouse College. When he first enrolled Reverend Warnock didn’t know how he would pay the full tuition, but with the help of low-interest student loans and Pell grants he graduated, earned a doctorate from the renowned Union Theological Seminary, and was ordained in the ministry. 

Reverend Warnock was chosen to serve as Senior Pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the former pulpit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he is distinguished as the youngest pastor selected to serve in that leadership role at the historic church. A longtime social justice activist, Reverend Warnock has long believed his ministry of service doesn’t stop at the church doors, and as a pastor he has worked to expand health care access, protect access to vital nutrition benefits, secure the right to vote for every eligible American, and end mass incarceration.

Elected Georgia’s first Black Senator in 2021, Reverend Warnock has carried his service and advocacy into the Senate, where he has championed and helped pass legislation to create good-paying jobs, address the maternal mortality crisis, expand and strengthen access to benefits for our nation’s veterans, and cap insulin costs for seniors on Medicare at $35 a month. Now in the second year of his first full term, Reverend Warnock serves on the Senate Agriculture, Banking, and Commerce committees, and continues to use his moral voice in the Senate to center people in Washington’s policy-making—from working to end rampant gun violence, cap insulin costs for everyone who needs it, and close Georgia’s health care gap, to advocating for America’s farmers and rural communities, and fighting to lengthen and strengthen the cords of our democracy by protecting the sacred right to vote.

Tickets are non-refundable

For questions, contact

Nora Ptacek

nptacek@dfl.org, 651.251.6390