WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The NBC television network on Wednesday projected Democrat Raphael Warnock the winner of his U.S. Senate runoff election against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler.

With 98% of the vote in, Warnock led Loeffler 50.5% to 49.5%, according to Edison Research.

Warnock, a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King once preached, would become Georgia's first Black senator if final election results confirmed his victory. (Reporting by David Morgan and Eric Beech; Editing by Tom Hogue)