Raphael Warnock

“ Are we going to give in to the forces that seek to divide us by gerrymandering us, suppressing us, and subverting the voices of some of us in pursuit of power at any cost, or are we going to live up to that grand American covenant, E pluribus Unum? Out of many—one. I choose what Dr. King called Beloved Community. I choose America. I choose a nation that embraces all of us. ”

“ We cannot turn away. And in just a few moments, all 100 of us, blessed with a sacred trust, will let the American people know where we stand on the question of whether the Senate will protect their voices, the voices of the very people who sent us here—or if we will simply surrender to the anti-democratic fervor and polarizing disunity spreading across our nation. ”

“ We need empathy, compassion, care for one another. Why are local election officials working in Lincoln County, Georgia, to close all but one polling location for a county that’s bigger than 250 square miles? Why is the second most powerful legislator in the Georgia State Senate working right now to pass legislation to eliminate all ballot drop boxes in Georgia in the middle of a pandemic? ”

“ And I hope that we will have the courage to do what is right for our communities and for our country—the courage to cross this bridge, to do the hard work in this defining moral moment in America for the sake of the communities that sent us here in the first place, for the sake of the planet, for the sake of health care, for the sake of jobs, for the sake of being able to argue for the things that we care about. The courage to fight for one another. ”

“ But it takes 60 votes to repair the ceiling of our democracy by passing voting rights legislation. I’m left to conclude that if the issue is important enough, the Senate feels compelled to act. Well let me say that I believe that the democracy is at least as important as the economy.
Recently many of our colleagues have argued that legislation to protect voting rights somehow offends our federal system of government and amounts, they say, to a federal takeover of elections. ”

“ Georgia, a state in the old confederacy, sent a Black man and a Jewish man to the Senate in one fell swoop. Our nation has always had a complicated history, and I submit to you that here’s where we are—we’re swinging from a moral dilemma. ”

“ I believe that voting rights are more important than a procedural rule, and if taking action requires a change in the rules, then it is time to change the rules. When the times changed, we have always changed the rules—160 times. ”

“ But how can we have productive conversations about the many issues affecting the American people—about lowering health care costs, about creating good-paying jobs, about fighting climate change, protecting reproductive health care—if politicians in states get to cherry-pick their voters? ”

“ We have worked hard to try and find some common ground with our Republican friends on this issue. I’ve said to my colleagues, let us bring these measures to the floor to debate. Let’s reason. Let’s deliberate. And I had hoped our friends on the other side would have allowed us to have a debate on voting rights legislation, but until today that’s what they blocked three times in the Senate. They didn’t block the bills, they blocked our ability to even have a debate on the bills.
As a pastor I understand the power and the possibility of coming together with those with whom we disagree ”