Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is projected to win reelection to his U.S. Senate seat, inching the Republican Party to the edge of securing a majority in the chamber next year.
Two outlets, NBC News and Decision Desk HQ, called the Senate race for Sullivan on Wednesday morning. Control of the Senate will be decided by two likely runoff races in Georgia that will take place Jan. 5.
Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both Republicans, are facing challenges from Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Both races will likely go to a runoff because no candidate is on track to secure at least 50% of the vote. Democratic and Republican strategists have already begun flocking to the state preparing for a campaign battle that may decide control of the Senate next session.
Warnock, Loeffler’s opponent, has a history of making anti-police comments from the pulpit when he led Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. In a series of sermons in 2015, Warnock told his black congregants that the police were a “danger” to their children.
“So in Ferguson, police power showing up in a kind of gangster and thug mentality. You know, you can wear all kinds of colors and be a thug. You can sometimes wear the colors of the state and behave like a thug,” Warnock said in one sermon.
“We are seeing the mean and ugly clutches of America’s prison industrial complex, and we are witnessing each week the ways in which its pernicious tentacles make their way into our neighborhoods and it doesn’t matter what kind of hood you live in. There is somebody always trying to steal our joy. Doesn’t matter whether you live in Ferguson or New York, Baltimore or McKinney, Texas. It’s children’s day and we got to lift up our children because our children are in trouble, and it’s often those who are sworn to protect who cause more trouble,” he said in another sermon.
When asked about his past comments during his campaign, he said that communities need to “reimagine policing.”
“We need to reimagine policing and reimagine the relationships between law enforcement and communities,” Warnock said. “We certainly need to demilitarize the police so we can rebuild the trust between the police and the community.”
Earlier this week, Warnock dodged a question on whether he favored packing the Supreme Court with additional justices after the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the bench. As The Daily Wire reported:
The reporter pressed, “But do you think that the — with Amy Coney Barrett now on the Supreme Court, would you want to see the Court expanded?”
Warnock ducked the question again, saying, “I’m really focused on representing the concerns of ordinary people here in Georgia. I think it’s presumptuous for me to go further down that path, talking about what ought to happen with the courts. I’m hopeful that the people of Georgia will look at my life, look at my record and give me the great honor of representing them in the United States Senate.”
Related: Without White House On The Ballot, Democrats Have An Uphill Climb In Georgia Senate Runoffs