Last Senate race is moral and spiritual work, says Warnock

In-person early voting for the last US Senate seat is under way statewide in Georgia’s runoff, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock working to get the jump on Republican challenger Herschel Walker who is putting less emphasis on advance balloting.

After winning a state lawsuit to allow Saturday voting after Thanksgiving, Warnock spent the weekend urging his supporters not to wait until the December 6 runoff. Trying to leverage his role as pastor of Martin Luther King Jr’s church and Georgia’s first Black US senator, Warnock concentrated his efforts on Sunday among Black communities in metro Atlanta.

‘‘What we are doing right now is soul work,’’ Warnock said at Liberty International Church southwest of downtown, where he rallied supporters before leading a march to a nearby early voting site where he cast his ballot. ‘‘We are engaged in a political exercise,’’ Warnock continued, ‘‘but this is moral and spiritual work, and for us that has always been based on the foundation of the church.’’