U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s historic win Tuesday has sparked interest in the Georgia Democrat’s personal life, with the masses searching for information on his ex-wife, children and net worth.
The incumbent Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker Tuesday boosting his party’s majority in the U.S. Senate to 51 seats.
The competition was a rematch of the November midterm election, a runoff because neither candidate secured more than 50 percent of the vote. However, after an aggressive campaign targeting independent voters and his opponent’s tangent about werewolves, Warnock secured more than 51 percent of the vote, with Walker nearing 48 percent.
Data shows Warnock got slightly more votes than he did in November, and Walker got a little less, and that shift occurred amid a smaller turnout among Georgia voters.
“After a long and hard-fought campaign, it is now my honor to utter the four most powerful words in a democracy, ‘the people have spoken,’” Warnock said in front of his supporters at a victory party in Atlanta Tuesday. “I have often said that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children.”
Warnock initially flipped the seat in January 2021 after a special election runoff against Republican Kelly Loeffler. GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson had previously held it since 2005. The Democrat made history Tuesday as the first African-American in Georgia to secure a U.S. Senate for a full six-year term. He was the only Black senator ever elected to represent the state on Capitol Hill in 2021.
Raphael Warnock’s net worth: How much is he worth in 2022?
The son of two preachers grew up in public housing in Savannah with 11 siblings. His father had a small mechanic business, and his mother picked cotton and tobacco part time.
Warnock followed in his parents’ footsteps at a young age, became a youth pastor and has spent the last three decades at the pulpit. He has led the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached for 17 years.
Warnock’s most recent senate financial disclosure showed his salary at the Atlanta church is $120,965. He was paid $164,816 for his role in the senate in 2021.
The report shows he also received a $243,750 advance for an upcoming memoir and $3,251 for royalties from New York University. Warnock also made more than dozen investments ranging in value from more than $10,000 to $50,000, the report shows. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently estimated Warnock’s net worth at between $650,000 and $1.5 million.
The senator faced backlash because his salary doubled after he was elected in 2021. Warnock was also criticized on the campaign trail for his current and past squabbles with his ex-wife.
Who is Raphael Warnock’s ex-wife Oulèye Ndoye?
Warnock and Oulèye Ndoye wed in 2016. The couple had a private ceremony in January and a public wedding on Valentine’s Day.
Ndoye, a New York native, is a “global leader” in health and human rights, according to her professional biography. She is currently completing a doctorate at Harvard in public health. Ndoye has also earned degrees at other top universities in the world, focusing on international history. She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta in the top 1 percent of her class and earned two master’s degrees — one from Columbia University in New York City and the University of Oxford in the U.K.
Ndoye has studied, worked and taught in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but she has also dedicated much of her knowledge and expertise to Atlanta. She has worked with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration to combat human trafficking in the city and with the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to tackle agricultural labor trafficking. Ndoye also sits on the board of directors for an Atlanta nonprofit that helps victims of sex trafficking.
In October, a pro-Walker political action committee produced an ad featuring police body camera footage of a dispute between Ndoye and Walker. Ndoye told police that her husband ran over her foot. The senator was not charged for the March 2020 incident, and Ndoye was reportedly not injured.
Warnock told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that it “never happened.” They divorced shortly after the incident.
Who are Raphael Warnock’s Children Chloe and Caleb?
Warnock and Ndoye have two young children together. The parents have been involved in a recent custody and children support dispute.
Court documents show Chloe was born the same year the couple married. Caleb was born two years later in 2018. Ndoye accused Warnock in February of failing to keep his visitation schedule and not paying for childcare expenses.
Walker used the court battle to attack Warnock on the campaign trail. Walker had also faced criticism for fathering children that he did not raise in his house and used the opportunity to call out on the senator. The Republican mocked the incumbent for paying for child care at a November campaign event in Augusta, Georgia.
“He paid himself for childcare, all that stuff — why don’t he keep his own kids? Don’t have nobody keep your kids. … I keep my own, even though he lied about me,” Walker said.
Warnock clapped back at Walker saying he “crossed a line where” his family is concerned.
“I want to set the record straight: My children live with me. I am present with my children in every way that a father should be, from breakfast in the morning to bedtime prayers at night. I can’t continue to let him lie about our family,” Warnock told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
How Raphael Warnock Defeated Herschel Walker in the Runoff Election
Warnock secured 95,454 more votes than Walker in the runoff election Tuesday, which is large in comparison to November when the Democrat finished the race with a 37,675-vote lead.
A little over 2 percent of 3.9 million voters who cast a ballot in November, or 81,365, voted for Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver. However, some of the voters who showed up for the midterm election skipped the polls on Tuesday. About 3.5 million voters cast their ballot in the Senate runoff.
Warnock saw his biggest increases in the vote in Stewart, Chattahoochee, Johnson, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
Despite the outcome of the election, some Warnock supporters still questioned how an unpolished candidate like Walker could run such a tight race.
The Donald Trump-backed candidate faced constant criticism for his bizarre speeches and outlandish misrepresentations. He also admitted to domestic abuse and was exposed for lies about his education, career and relationships. Two women accused him of paying for abortions despite running a pro-life campaign. In his most recent meme-worthy moment, Walker used a plot from a 1985 film “Fright Night” to proclaim himself a vampire with the power to kill werewolves.
As several outlets called the election for Warnock on Tuesday night, the Republican’s campaign volunteers and supporters created a circle a prayer circle around him.
“One of the things I said when they called the race, I said the numbers doesn’t look like it’s gonna add up,” Walker said. “But one of the things I want to tell all of you is you never stop dreaming. I don’t want any of you to stop dreaming.”
