This year, Black early voting turnout across the South has far exceeded that of the midterm elections in 2022. On the eve of Midterms 2026, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) joins April to discuss the historic role the South has played in strengthening American democracy.
While speaking on the early voting numbers, Senator Warnock underscores the necessity of investing in Southern voters year round, not just on Election Day. He and April emphasize that any attempts by the Administration to “weaponize despair” and discourage voting will be met only with the strength of a “we the people,” community-powered movement. The Senator deep dives into what these movements look like on the ground in Mississippi and Georgia.
Reverend Raphael Warnock is a Democratic U.S. Senator from Georgia.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
April Ryan
What a special moment today, a special edition of The Tea with April Ryan. We have none other than Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock with us. He is on the road, stumping for votes, trying to ensure Democratic victory, for the House and maybe even the Senate, just Democrats all over the spectrum, you know, local elections, federal, state, all of that. But listen, Senator Raphael Warnock, let’s start with what has been the conversation all weekend. What happened in Michigan? At the Perfecting Praise Church, Marvin Wine is your minister. You understand a lot of times politicians come to churches. But what happened here? You had a major switch that really, I guess, fueled more Democratic support after Haley Stevens made an unexpected switch. to the Republican side, talk to me about this.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Well, it’s… it’s bizarre. I mean, really, 24 hours earlier, she was supporting Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. And, I don’t know what happened between the conversations she apparently had with some of my colleagues. You know, I’ve been watching the reporting, and then what happened the very next morning. It is quite unfortunate, but I think that you’re seeing the response from folks in Michigan. I don’t think Black voters are gonna be confused by any of this. They’re clear that what’s on the line is their pocketbooks. The high price of gas, high price for groceries, healthcare unaffordable. And they don’t need a MAGA warrior, who’s simply going to do Donald Trump’s bidding. They need someone that they can connect with. And, having been with Abdul on the ground, he is gonna be a real champion for the people of Michigan.
April Ryan
you and President Obama, but this is further fueling, again, Democrats to… to support the Democratic Party, particularly in Michigan, that is very much in play. Do you think this misstep, if you will, or… I guess it was a calculated effort on Steven’s part. Do you believe that now that, she’s done this, do you believe that the numbers are more so in your favor, for the U.S. Senate to go from… from the 47 to maybe 51, you need 4 more. You need to hold right now what you have and add 4 more. Do you believe that Michigan is helping that, which just happened this weekend?
Senator Raphael Warnock
Well, I’m feeling good about our chances. I mean, think about the fact that, you know, about 2 years ago, if you had said we were going to flip the Senate, take back the majority, You know, the prospects of that would be very, very low. But I am nauseously optimistic that we’re on the right track.
April Ryan
Nauseously optimistic.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Look at politics, anything can happen. I’m optimistic that we’re gonna get this done. Let me just say, and I don’t want to beat this to death, but… I think the developments over the weekend proved that, Michiganders in the Democratic primary made the right choice. They clearly made the right decision. And if they had any doubts, they should be really clear now. About, who we need in this fight. And that’s Abdul El-Sayed, and I think things are looking good there. You know, I know a little bit about what it means to be in a tough race.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
And so, as long as he leaves it all on the field, continues to do the work that I personally saw him doing, strengthening our coalition, it’s a multi-religious coalition. When I was there with him, there were rabbis and imams and pastors all in the same room. supporting Abdul. And, yeah, as you look at what’s going on all across the map, I’m feeling good. I’m, I’m, you know, I’ve spent a lot of time leaning in, and trying to get my party to invest more in the South, but…
April Ryan
Yes.
Senator Raphael Warnock
I think we… I think we’re gonna have some… some wonderful surprises tomorrow night.
April Ryan
Yeah, and we’re gonna get on the South right now. Sure. This has been the story. I mean, this has been the story for the last few days. It’s just hanging overhead. But in play, Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Virginia. And more, I mean, in this moment. But at issue, as you said, the issue of affordability. You are dealing with the issue of affordability as well as election security, as well as voting rights, the good trouble. that Congressman, former, late Congressman John Lewis, your parishioner, talked about oversight and accountability. This is all in… we are watching it in real time, and these are the issues that you have been dealing with, even as senator, and now in this midterm election, in reality. Talk to me about that, sir, please.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Well, as I’ve been saying to folks all across Georgia and all across the country. Here’s the moment that we’re in. the consequences are large. But the electoral margins are small.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
And, you know… A lot of these races are decided by just a few votes.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
And so what we need people to do, April, in this moment, is to show up, exercise your citizenship, nothing more powerful than a democracy than the people’s voices.
April Ryan
So, voting rights… we’re voting without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana versus CalA, completely. That Supreme Court decision, completely gutted the Voting Rights.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Right.
April Ryan
1965. And then we’re also dealing with the issue of election security. There is expected to be intimidation, specifically in places that are up for grabs. Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Alaska. Talk to me about that, because there is a concern that intimidation will be a major factor from the federal government, the Trump administration. Talk to me about what you’re doing in this effort, and what people should know.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Well, we’ve, you know, we’ve run different scenarios about what could happen, and our lawyers are on the ground. There was a call with our chief lawyer who does election protection with the caucus last night. We remain vigilant. And, look, I’m sitting in Fulton County, Georgia. So I know firsthand the trick. that Donald Trump will try to play. I mean, he went into Fulton County, seized ballots this year. From an election that was in 2020. So long ago that… A lot of the folks who were elected aren’t even in office anymore. So I don’t put anything past Donald Trump. It’s illegal for him to put ICE agents in front of polls, but they might try other things in certain communities to create intimidation where people might be afraid to leave their house in these communities where you know you could be swept up. And I just think that what we’ve got to do in this moment is we’ve got to show up. The way you respond to assaults on democracy is through democratic means and democratic tools. And so we need people to show up, get in line. Know that once you’re in line, even if the polls close, once you’re in line, just stay in line. You get to vote.
April Ryan
So, here’s the deal. We also… you’re in the clergy, as well. You are not only a standout U.S. Senator, but you are a member… you were a member of the cloth before you became a U.S. Senator, and I know from being in Baltimore, you were at Douglas Memorial before Atlanta claimed you. But listen…
Senator Raphael Warnock
I’m from… I’m from… I’m from Georgia. Born and raised.
April Ryan
I know you’re from Georgia, but Baltimore has a little bit of claim, too.
Senator Raphael Warnock
I’ll take it, I’ll take it.
April Ryan
Look, you need to take it.
Senator Raphael Warnock
I’ll take… I’ll take that and a crab cake.
April Ryan
Alright, yes, some Baltimore crabs around the harbor, that’s about it. So anyway, at the end of the day, you are a clergy as well, and I understand Barbara Skinner, is working to have about 1,000 plus clergy members at the polls. To also de-escalate. She’s using faith. I mean, everybody’s pulling out all the stops, trying to make sure to ensure this. But not only that, she said something so poignant. It’s not just Election Day. It’s not just the last day to vote, November 3rd, it’s also the certification, the prayers and concerns over the certification, up until the seating of the new Congress on January 3rd. What say you, sir, about that?
Senator Raphael Warnock
I just want us to take two steps back, April, and… And just reflect on the fact that we are here, that we’re even here.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Who would have thought a decade or so ago that we… we would be running war games in our country to make sure that we protect our democracy from the sitting president of the United States. We’re in a… this is an election, but it’s so much thicker, so much…
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
significant than an election. There’s nothing normal about this moment. This is an all-out authoritarian assault on our democracy. And as a pastor, for me, we are in a… we’re in a moment of… of… a moral moment. We’re in a spiritual crisis as a country. No, no country that’s well. Only a country that is beset with its own brokenness could have elected Donald Trump twice. We’ve had plenty of time to know who he is. And yet, here we are, again. I have faith still in, our citizens and the people of Georgia all across this country. I think with this historic early voter turnout, for me, that is a glimmer and sign of hope. That people know that the country’s on the wrong track. They’ve had it with this corruption, unabashed, naked corruption, in which we have a sitting president basically operating as a crime syndicate.
April Ryan
Excuse me.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Pennsylvania Avenue, where the president is the mob boss, literally shaking down countries with these tariffs that are crushing everyday Americans. And I think the people are gonna say enough is enough. But it’s an election, but it’s also a reckoning. In this country, I think we’re gonna need to look deeply inward, because the truth of the matter is, there were a lot of people being left behind long before Trump, which is what gave someone, a demagogue like him, an opening, because of the brokenness that was already there. So we’re not trying to get past this in order to get back to normal. We need to lay out a bold vision for our country that embraces all children, gives them a path to prosperity and possibility, and I think the country is hungry for those kind of leaders.
April Ryan
So, in our moral moment, as you said, in our brokenness, there is a reset. And the South, in particular, Mississippi, you’ve been going through the South. Georgia. Talk to me about these 30 days that you’ve been going through the South, sending this message of a reset in this brokenness, Where we have had unethical, immoral leadership, if you will, as well as corrupt leadership.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Well, if you look at signal moments in our country. The South has often been the hinge that swings the door in one direction or the other. Whether you’re talking about the Civil War. And the years that led up to it. the years of vexation and tension that led up to the Civil War. or 100 years later, the civil rights movement.
April Ryan
Yes.
Senator Raphael Warnock
When Dr. King said, we’ve come to… Cash a check that’s come back marked insufficient funds. A hundred years after the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendment had been passed during Reconstruction. Reconstruction is its own moment. What happens in the South? Civil War, civil rights, and I think in recent years, as we look at the reverse of the migrations, where African Americans who for some seven decades have migrated mainly to the North and the cities, are now migrating back to the South. It’s a changing… it’s the fastest growing region in the country. I’m saying to you that as goes the South, so goes the nation, good or bad. And this is one of those inflection moments. I’m proud of what we did in Georgia in 2021. But I think that the Democratic Party, if it is serious about being faithful to its most faithful base. Black voters needs to lean into the South. Mississippi is a blue state, they just don’t know it yet. They just need to… they just need to be organized. I’m telling you, it’s a blue state. When you… when you look at Mississippi. It has the highest percentage of eligible Black voters of any state in the union. We finally got to a place, as the demographics changed in Georgia, where we could build a kind of multiracial coalition that delivered me and John Ossoff to the United States Senate is gonna deliver Keisha Lance Bottoms to the governor’s mansion tomorrow. But I’m telling you. that Mississippi, they’re more… has a greater percentage of Black voters in Mississippi than they are in Georgia. And you take those voters, and you put them together with poor white people in these rural districts who have been crushed disproportionately by these SNAP cuts, contrary.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Stereotypes that get put forward. There are more white people who need SNAP and are on SNAP than Black people. These rural districts are crushed because even the local store, the economy, the ecosystem is supported by SNAP in ways that people don’t fully appreciate. When you look at the number of people who need Medicaid, and these rural hospitals have been closing with these draconian Medicaid cuts, I go to these rural districts all the time here in Georgia, and I talk to those folks, and they’re surprised to see somebody like me, meaning a United States Senator. And I’m surprised that they’re surprised, because I represent all 11 million people of Georgia, and I’m gonna fight for them, even the ones who didn’t vote for me. And I’m saying to you that that kind of multiracial coalition that delivered me and John Ossoff out of Georgia to the Senate. we can run that play in Mississippi. And we can run it in Texas, we can run it in South Carolina, and we can transform the country, not just electorally, but we can push the conversation and have a more honest conversation about what we need to make this a great country for everybody.
April Ryan
Adding North Carolina in there as well. North Carolina, and I’m gonna take you on, you keep talking about blue. I’m gonna tell you, I know you’re a pastor, I know you’re a U.S. Senator, esteemed U.S. Senator, but I know you know about Prince. Purple rain, let’s talk about purple rain. Red and blue make perfect!
Senator Raphael Warnock
I’m a big Prince fan.
April Ryan
Yeah, I’ve been singing Purple Rain. I said, this is what it’s gonna be. I said, because people… the greater the pain, the greater the protest, and people are using this vote as protest. And I want to go to something that you said. You talked about how Mississippi has the largest number of blacks in the South. But yet, it’s still considered one of the mo- it is the most racist state in the nation. But let’s… let’s juxtapose this with Georgia. This summer, I talked to an elected official in Atlanta, I cannot say who, it was off the record, but they said to me, with this Keisha Lance Bottoms, Race. They said, even though there’s pain, you have to remember Georgia is still racist, and there could be some that sit out. even though they’re in pain, they don’t want to cross the line and don’t want to vote for a Black woman. A Black person, let alone a Black woman. What say you about that? Because we’re hearing if she wins, it’s going to be by one vote. I was in Atlanta. Last week, I, for 2 days, all I saw was Keisha. I was just in the Keisha area, I guess, because I was scared to go out, and it’s unfortunate, I was scared to go into other places where people recognized me. Talk to me about what you’re hearing and seeing in Georgia.
Senator Raphael Warnock
It’s always impossible until it’s done. Folks thought my race was impossible. That there was no way it was going to happen. Until it happened. You know, let’s press… Rewind, not that far back. People didn’t think… that we would send a black family to the White House. It’s always impossible until it’s done. And, I, I think that Americans Are growing weary of all of this division and all of this hate. And they’re looking for leaders who will remind us of who we are when we stand together. Keisha Lance Bottoms knows how to do that work. And, look, although, you know, we didn’t get the outcome we wanted when Stacy ran, and when she ran again, the thing you have to remember is that these margins get smaller and smaller. Leading up to my race, we had some heartbreak. I remember the heartbreak of 2014. When we had two incredible names running here in Georgia, we had Sam Nunn’s daughter and Jimmy Carter’s grandson, and we lost both of those races. But we could see the trajectory that the state was taking. So we lost in 2014, didn’t get what we wanted. 2016, 2018? 2020 cycle, Georgia sends its first Black senator and its first Jewish senator in one fell swoop. And, I think we’re gonna get a great result, tomorrow. Look, Rick Jackson has spent $200 million of his own money, and I have to say own money in quotations, because he earned a lot of that money on the backs of Georgia taxpayers. He has benefited from our healthcare system, even as he refuses to expand Medicaid. I think she’s running an incredible race. and I think, that, John Ossoff, of course, is running an incredible race, and I see the makings of what we need to get a victory on both of those races tomorrow. But look, I was… I was up in, Wisconsin, with our brother who’s running for governor, last week. I was in Nebraska, where we’re getting ready to elect a Black man to be governor. So, America has always had a complicated story.
April Ryan
Yeah.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Always. And we have to be honest about the complexity of that story. This moment, this moment is complicated. My own father, I had an older father. I often tell the story that my dad told me the story about how, as a World War II veteran, wearing his soldier’s uniform. He had to give up his bus seat to a teenager.
April Ryan
A white teenager.
Senator Raphael Warnock
A white teenager, of course. Yes. But his son now sits in a Senate seat. So we have to be… he had to give up his bus seat, I sit in the Senate seat. We have to be honest about both sides of that story. I can tell you as a pastor that all families have a complicated story, and they don’t typically want to be honest about all sides. But we all… you know, it’s usually later in the day. At the family reunion, there’s the official story that gets read, but, you know, April, after folks… the day wears on, and folks have had a little bit of communion. We start to hear the parts of that story that we don’t want to face up to. And, I think good leaders know how to… teach us how to wrestle with the parts of our story, even the parts that people don’t want to face because they’re uncomfortable. But the effort is not to pull us back, it’s to move us forward. The only way to move forward is together.
April Ryan
Well, I believe there’s a communion of spirit people are hurting right now, as we talk.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Yeah.
April Ryan
I’m not talking about the drink, I’m talking about the communion of spirit.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Yeah.
April Ryan
Again, the pain, and they want to change. And this is a time for good trouble. I can’t help but think of… the late Congressman John R. Lewis.
Senator Raphael Warnock
Yeah, yeah.
April Ryan
In the good trouble. But you also… there’s one piece that I have reflected, being a student of history, sitting in history for the last 30 years at the White House. One thing There takes those crescendo moments in time for change to happen. Look at what happened with Kamala Harris. It took George Floyd for the transition. what does this moment bring? We’ll find out November 4th, maybe the 5th, but then it’ll be certified. January 3rd. U.S. Senator… Georgia esteemed U.S. Senator and pastor, Raphael Warnock. It’s always good to sit and talk with you. I feel like I want to jump over a pew. You know, just in… just the news, just talking about the news, you make me… you make my spirit jump.
Senator Raphael Warnock
But thank you.
April Ryan
Thank you for your service. Is there a last word you want to tell people on the… before we have the last day of voting?
Senator Raphael Warnock
Here’s the victory that we have to have, no matter the outcomes tomorrow, or the outcomes on this policy or that. There are those right now in the highest levels of our government who are trying to weaponize despair. Hear me. They’re trying to weaponize despair. They’re trying to convince us that they’ve already won, no need to push back. That’s the victory that we have to win. We… we have to keep, as… as my… one of my mentors, the great, late. Reverend Jesse Jackson was saying this moment, keep hope alive. John Lewis… John Lewis would say, vote like you’ve never voted before. And, I’m honored that I got to know both of those gentlemen and so many more. And, who were we to give up? They didn’t have any reason to believe. They could win, but they kept moving. We don’t know what else to do, folks. Keep marching, keep voting, keep showing up. That’s how we win.
April Ryan
As the Founding Fathers said, we the people, this is a we the people moment, and as Jesse Jackson always said, I am somebody. Senator Raphael Warnock, thank you so much for this moment. Thank you. You are always welcome to come back and sip some tea and knock the pot over with me as we continue. Yeah. Much love.
Senator Raphael Warnock
So, thank you so much. Take care.
April Ryan
Thank you.
