Georgia Democrats take a victory lap from the pulpit of MLK’s church

Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock reveled in the Democratic sweep on Sunday at the spiritual home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after a generational victory for the party and Black women.

“She needs no introduction. I just want to say that the great-great-granddaughter of slaves is the next governor of Georgia,” Warnock said, as the congregation erupted in applause.

Bottoms made brief remarks from the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church days after Democrats won every statewide office and flipped one of two chambers in the state Legislature. The sweeping rebuke of Republicans was extraordinary by any measure — upending the state’s political landscape and ushering in eight Black women officeholders on Election Day.

She thanked the congregation for its support and spoke of an emotional visit to her great-great-grandmother Betsy Peek’s grave in Crawfordville during the final days of her campaign. She said she dropped to the ground when she found it.

“I don’t believe in happenstance and on the eve of this historic election across Georgia, that I made it to the grave site that we didn’t even know existed,” she said. “And I got to tell her thank you. And I got to tell all the ancestors, thank you. And now I get to stand here and tell you all thank you.”

A who’s-who of Georgia Democrats attended Sunday’s service from Warnock and Bottoms to the Georgia House Democratic Caucus. Warnock, who is senior pastor at Ebenezer, remarked on the Democratic victories up and down the ticket in Georgia.

“With them is the soon-to-be Georgia House leader,” Warnock said, referring to Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, who is poised to be the next speaker of the state House.

The atmosphere in the historic church was jubilant, as the Democrats took another victory lap. Still, Warnock offered a warning.

“The one who poses as king in a gold-encrusted house is now a lame duck,” he said. “Donald Trump is a lame duck president and an old lion who will probably feel cornered. I want you to pray, because that is a dangerous situation.”

Republicans were facing political headwinds as they headed into the midterms. President Donald Trump’s approval ratings were tanking. Voters were dissatisfied with the rising cost of living and the president’s unpopular war in Iran, which had driven up fuel prices. Bottoms and other Democrats capitalized on that.

The Democratic rout in Georgia was supercharged by soaring Black voter participation and Georgians animated by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a pillar of the Voting Rights Act — which cleared the way for states to overhaul their political lines and limited the consideration of race in drawing maps.

“That’s why we mobilized and did what we needed to do to take back control for the people,” said Jerry Jackson, a member of Ebenezer who criticized several recent Supreme Court decisions.

While some states rushed to redistrict in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, Republican legislative leaders in Georgia rebuffed Gov. Brian Kemp’s call during a June special session to redraw maps for 2028, scuttling the potential for a contentious fight before the midterms.

Still, it was believed by many Democrats that lawmakers would be called into another special session after the midterms, not just to redraw new maps, but also to strip powers away from the governor if Bottoms were elected. Kemp quickly put that to rest after Bottoms’ victory, saying in a statement “the voters of our state have spoken.”

In his sermon Sunday, Warnock evoked Trump’s push to redraw House districts in Republicans’ favor and the Supreme Court ruling, calling it “a God-awful” decision.

“Drunk with power, they got busy drawing crooked lines, turning blue districts into red districts,” Warnock said. “But I’ve been telling you all year that evil always goes too far.”

Nearing the end of service, he commended elected Democrat Sheila Edwards, who landed a post on the Public Service Commission.

“Is there a Black woman here who is not in public office?” Warnock quipped.

Now comes the hard part for Democrats.

Bottoms, the slate of newly minted constitutional officers and Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the state House, will have to navigate how to wield their newfound power.

While they may be able to deliver on ambitious Democratic priorities, such as Medicaid expansion, they’ll have to do it without alienating Republicans in the narrowly divided Legislature. Democrats will likely need to build alliances and pick up votes from defecting Republicans to make their priorities into reality in the Senate, where the GOP will still hold a narrow majority.