Sen. Raphael Warnock is a man in two worlds: the spiritual and the political.
Eugene Daniels/POLITICO

Locked in a tight reelection battle, his campaign and allied groups have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking Republican Herschel Walker’s alleged personal failings — reports that he has played little-to-know role in some of his children’s lives, the well-documented history of domestic abuse allegations against him, and recent accusations that in 2009, he paid for a then-girlfriend’s abortion. (POLITICO has not independently verified that reporting, which Walker has denied.)

“There could be a misstep here in trying to disqualify Walker so much and not to requalify what Warnock has actually done,” one Democratic pollster told POLITICO. “[Voters] get it. They understand Walker is the big bad wolf. They like Warnock. But they don’t have anything really good to say. They don’t know what he’s been doing.”

There is plenty that Democrats see as disqualifying in Walker: One ad highlights claims from his ex-wife that he held a gun to her head.

“Their sole focus on [Walker] as an individual is not working,” LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the voting rights groups Black Voters Matter based out of Atlanta, told POLITICO. “He’s a Black man. A Black man being flawed, a Black man not having integrity. A Black man, not taking care of his children. Ain’t that what they think about us anyway?”

Brown believes that Democrats’ time would be better spent centering Warnock, because voters’ feelings about Walker have solidified. If Warnock’s campaign is going to be on the attack, she and others say, it needs to portray Walker as emblematic of larger trends in the Republican Party.

At Ebenezer, Rev. Warnock preached compassion, about a God “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

And though the congregation may not want to broach politics with a reporter, the two Warnocks are clearly working in concert. Thinly veiled political speech was lightly sprinkled throughout the sermon. For church members, it’s not new — politics is no novelty in the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached.

Warnock’s “preaching always had a bit of politics in it,” one long-time church member said after service. “So people may think, ‘Oh, he’s just doing that.’ But he always has.”

Warnock mentioned the importance of fighting climate change and used health care policy as a metaphor to describe God’s promises. “See verse two and hear Him say, ‘Child of God, you are the blessed beneficiary of a comprehensive health care plan,'” Warnock said. “He heals preexisting conditions. That’s what sin is. It is a preexisting condition.”

Thinly veiled political speech throughout sermons is not new for members of Ebenezer Baptist Church; politics is no novelty in the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached.