Republican Jumps In to Challenge Warnock for Georgia Senate Seat

(Bloomberg) -- Republican Kelvin King announced he would challenge incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia in 2022, becoming the first Republican to enter the race.

King was an outspoken Black supporter of former President Donald Trump in Georgia. He and his wife, Janelle, own a construction company in Marietta, Georgia, and together run the political group Speak Georgia. Janelle King is a political consultant and former deputy state director of the Georgia Republican Party.

In his announcement, King said he was a veteran who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and was raised by a single mother who gave birth to him when she was a teenager. He said he was running to lower taxes, stop President Joe Biden from “dismantling every bit of the ‘America First’ agenda” Trump implemented, and push back on Warnock’s “divisive far left representation.”

Warnock defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia U.S. Senate run-off in January. He is up for re-election next year because he ran in a special election to finish the term of retired Senator Johnny Isakson.

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