Senator Reverend Warnock teamed up with Senator Bill Cassidy to host National Seersucker Day at the U.S. Capitol on June 12

Senator Warnock returned as National Seersucker Day Co-Chair for the second year

Senator Warnock: “In hard times, people need reminders of our common humanity. That we can show up with joy and still do serious work. And as a Senator for all Georgians, it does not hurt when that reminder is rooted in a uniquely Southern tradition”

ICYMI from GQ: The Story Behind the US Senate’s Quirkiest Tradition, Seersucker Thursday

Above: Senator Warnock sporting his seersucker suit on the steps of the U.S. Capitol

Official U.S. Senate photo by Ryan Donnell

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) commemorated the 12th annual National Seersucker Day. Last year, Senator Cassidy announced Senator Warnock as his new co-chair to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who served as co-chair for the bipartisan tradition from 2015 until her death in 2023. Celebrating the history and heritage of seersucker suits in the United States, for years the annual observance has brought senators from both sides of the aisle together in fellowship and serves as a reminder of the virtues of bipartisanship for lawmakers in Washington. The Senators also led a resolution recognizing National Seersucker Day.  

“Celebrating more than just a fashion statement, National Seersucker Day is a wonderful, bipartisan tradition with Southern roots that helps unite Americans through our shared love of comfortable summer clothing,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “In hard times, people need reminders of our common humanity. That we can show up with joy and still do serious work. And as a Senator for all Georgians, it does not hurt when that reminder is rooted in a uniquely Southern tradition.”

“Today, we celebrate National Seersucker Day and the light-hearted tradition of bringing a little Louisiana charm to Capitol Hill,” said Dr. Cassidy. “There’s no better way to beat the heat than with a seersucker suit. It’s a distinctly New Orleans invention, and I’m proud to share it with my colleagues every year.”

Seersucker suits were first popularized in the United States by a New Orleans businessman in the early 1900s. The material, originally from India, is a lighter, more breathable fabric that provides additional air flow in warmer weather compared to classic wool suits—historically making them ideal for wearing during the Washington D.C.’s muggy summer months. Seersucker is typically made of cotton, which is one of Georgia’s most important agricultural crops, with roughly 3,500 family farms producing cotton throughout the state.

The National Seersucker Day Resolution can be found HERE.

Read more about Senator Warnock’s leadership on National Seersucker Day in GQ:

It’s been a hectic time in American politics, to say the least, but even the most devoted CSPAN junkies might have missed Resolution 254 when it hit the Senate floor at the end of May. The resolution was interesting, for one thing, because at a time when lawmakers can’t seem to agree on whether grass is green or water is wet, its co-sponsors were Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, and Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat. More notable, though, is the resolution’s focus: seersucker suits.

Yesterday in the Capitol, a dozens-strong group of senators and their staffers suited up in the puckered fabric to continue the tradition. With all of the weighty issues facing the nation’s legislators, it might seem odd to devote time and energy to cosplaying as Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, but Seersucker Day is more than just an excuse to dress up like a 1930s Southern lawyer. “Seersucker Day here in the Capitol is a time to bring a little levity to a place that takes itself very seriously, sometimes perhaps too seriously,” explains Warnock over a Zoom call from his DC office. “In a moment when the country and our politics are so divided, it’s a show of bipartisan connection. And I like the fact that it’s rooted in a style and a tradition that’s based in the South, where I was born and raised, and where I now serve.”

“I’m from Savannah, Georgia, and if it’s July or August, you don’t just feel the heat; you wear it,” says Warnock. “[Seersucker] comes from that. It’s a nice, cool cotton, and it represents the style and charm of the South. For me, seersucker goes right along with big front porches and iced tea.”

Warnock, who has served as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005, is clearly someone who understands the power of good tailoring, but he’s hesitant to talk about his Seersucker Thursday fit in much detail (with the exception of his socks, which are printed with pictures of his kids). He prefers instead to muse on the deeper significance of style, and the many ways in which Black Americans have redefined over the last century. “I come from the Civil Rights activist tradition, and so when I think of style, I don’t just think of clothes,” Warnock says. “I think about jazz and the blues, the syncopated rhythms of marginalized people, disrupting the normal flow of things and adding some different harmonies and nuance to the American story.”

In today’s climate, when bipartisan goodwill and well-dressed politicians are both in critically short supply, it’s more valuable than ever. “It’s a nod to the connections that we have with one another across partisan lines, ideological lines, racial lines,” says Warnock. “That alone is a reason to keep this going.”

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