Ebenezer pastor Raphael Warnock enters US Senate race

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The Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, announced Thursday he’s running for U.S. Senate, challenging recently appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

With his influential pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Warnock immediately brings some Democratic star power to the race — and some powerful friends.

Within hours of entering the race, Warnock locked up perhaps the most coveted endorsement in Georgia Democratic politics when Stacey Abrams, the party’s 2018 nominee for governor, announced she’s supporting his campaign.

Warnock, 50, launched his run with a campaign website video that traces his life from the subsidized Savannah housing project where he lived as a child to becoming pastor at the historic church. “I’m running because I think that this is a critical moment in our state and in our country,” Warnock said. “I want to make sure that kids have a path the same way I did. I want to make sure that seniors aren’t having to make the terrible choice between prescription drugs and buying food.”

https://apnews.com/269f650040926804fc2603c49b49001c