Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (left) and challenger Republican Herschel Walker (right)
ATLANTA – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker pushed incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock to a likely runoff for a key Senate seat Tuesday after both candidates appeared to fall short of earning more than 50% of the vote.
Walker had amassed 48.5% of the vote as of 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, with Warnock drawing 49.4%, with 97% of precincts reporting, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s website. Libertarian Chase Oliver’s 2% of the vote was a distant third but enough to potentially put the two major-party candidates into a Dec. 6 runoff.
“We always knew this race would be close,” Warnock told supporters gathered at a downtown Atlanta hotel late Tuesday night. “Y’all just hang in there.”
“I don’t come to lose,” Walker told his supporters, who had gathered near Truist Park in Cobb County. “He’s going to be tough to beat … just hang in there a little bit longer.”
The two candidates both have deep roots in Georgia but differed sharply on the economy, abortion and gun rights on the campaign trail this fall.
Challenger Walker sought to identify Warnock with President Joe Biden and blame the Democrats for inflation. In contrast, Warnock touted the steps he has taken as a senator to reduce the effects of inflation on Georgians, such as instituting monthly caps on insulin prices and supporting college student loan debt relief.
Walker opposes most gun control measures as unconstitutional and contended that the government should stay out of health care. Warnock, in contrast, strongly supports Medicaid expansion in Georgia and voted for a gun-control bill passed by Congress in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shootings.
Though Walker initially indicated he opposes all abortions, during an October debate, he said he supports Georgia’s law that bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. In contrast, Warnock said that he believes abortion is a private medical decision between patient and doctor and he believes women should have the right to choose an abortion.
Despite Walker’s pro-life stance, two ex-girlfriends alleged he paid for their abortions, though Walker has denied these claims. Walker’s son also publicly criticized his father on social media.
But Warnock also faced an allegation that he ran over his ex-wife’s foot during an argument, which he has denied.
Ads for both candidates flooded Georgia airwaves and digital outlets. Warnock raised more than $100 million against Walker’s $37.7 million. But money appears to have made little difference in the outcome of the race, since neither candidate earned enough votes to prevent a runoff.
This will be the second time Warnock must win a runoff for the Senate seat. He first won his seat in a 2021 runoff that also drew national attention and dollars.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republicans swept the races for Georgia’s constitutional offices Tuesday, winning all seven down-ballot contests from lieutenant governor down to insurance and labor commissioner.
With 97% of the vote counted shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday, state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, was ahead of Democrat Charlie Bailey in the contest for lieutenant governor, 51.5 % to 46.3%, according to unofficial results. Libertarian Ryan Graham picked up 2.1% of the vote.
Jones was the only Republican on the statewide ticket who took part in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. He served on an alternate slate of electors that was poised to hand the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump if any of the lawsuits filed on behalf of Trump after Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia had moved forward.
Bailey ran unsuccessfully for attorney general four years ago and was planning to again this year before he changed his mind and decided to become a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Republican Attorney General Chris Carr won a second full term as Georgia’s top lawyer. Carr was leading Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, 52% to 46.5%. Libertarian Martin Cowen was third at 1.5%.
Then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Carr attorney general in 2016. He was elected to a full four-year term two years later.
GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defeated Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, 53.3% to 44%. Libertarian Ted Metz trailed at 2.8%.
Raffensperger burnished his image as a political straight shooter when he refused to intervene in the 2020 presidential election after Trump called him in early January of last year and urged him to “find” the 11,780 votes the then-president needed to carry Georgia.
In the race for state School Superintendent, Republican Richard Woods defeated Democratic challenger Alisha Thomas Searcy 54.3% to 45.7%. Woods was first elected superintendent in 2014.
Incumbent state Insurance Commissioner John King won a first full term in that office, leading Democratic challenger Janice Laws Robinson 54.2% to 45.8%. Gov. Brian Kemp appointed then-Doraville Police Chief King to the post in 2019 after then-Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was indicted for fraud and money laundering.
State Sen. Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, was elected agriculture commissioner, 53.1% to 44.8%, over Democrat Nakita Hemingway. Libertarian David Raudabaugh was third at 2.1%.
Current Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black opted not to seek reelection this year and instead launched an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate.
State Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, was elected labor commissioner over Democratic state Rep. William Boddie of East Point. Thompson had 52.2% of the vote compared to 45.2% for Boddie. Libertarian Emily Anderson was third with 2.6% of the vote.
The seat is being vacated by Republican Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, who decided not to run for a fourth term.
No Democrat has won a statewide constitutional office in Georgia since 2006.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp won a second term in office Tuesday in a rematch of the 2018 gubernatorial race.
With 97% of the vote counted shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday, Kemp was leading Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, 53.5% to 45.8%, according to unofficial results, well above the 50%-plus-one margin needed to avoid a runoff next month. Libertarian Shane Hazel was running a distant third with just 0.7% of the vote.
“I appreciate the strong grassroots supporters we have had, literally from Claxton to Calhoun,” Kemp told a cheering crowd at the Coca-Cola Roxy across from Truist Park. “We would not be here without you. Thank you so much.”
Throughout the campaign, Kemp stressed his record of leading Georgia’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. He credited the rebound to his decision to reopen businesses shut down by the virus sooner than governors in other states.
Kemp also touted his record on crime, including the creation of a multi-agency Crime Suppression Unit last year in the wake of a crime wave spawned by the pandemic and, more recently, the formation of a Gang Prosecution Unit in the attorney general’s office to target criminal street gangs.
On the campaign trail, Kemp reminded voters he was the driving force behind the 2019 “heartbeat” bill banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. But he stopped short of calling for even tighter restrictions on abortion favored by some Republicans.
Kemp pledged to double down on his tax-cutting agenda if he won a second term as governor by asking lawmakers to approve $2 billion in income and property tax rebates on top of the $1.6 billion tax rebate Georgians received this year.
Abrams told her supporters at rallies across the state that most of the benefits of Kemp’s tax cuts were going to upper-income Georgians, while the governor was missing an opportunity to help low- and middle-income families. She called for spending Georgia’s bulging $6.6 billion surplus instead on education, housing, and health care.
Abrams criticized Kemp for refusing to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program, a failure that was leaving 500,000 Georgians without affordable health insurance coverage and forcing hospitals across the state to close for lack of operating funds.
She also blamed the increase in violent crime on guns and accused Kemp of worsening the problem by backing legislation the General Assembly passed this year allowing Georgians to carry concealed firearms without a permit.
Kemp and Abrams also tussled over an election-reform law Abrams blasted as a voter suppression measure concocted by Republicans last year following Democratic wins in Georgia in 2020 and at the beginning of 2021. The governor characterized it as an election integrity measure aimed at making it harder to commit voter fraud.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Enrollment on University System of Georgia (USG) campuses has declined for a second year in a row.
Total enrollment for the fall semester at the system’s 26 colleges and universities stands at 334,459 students, down 1.2% from the 340,638 who were attending classes a year ago.
While enrollment grew by 1.2% at the system’s four research universities – the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, and Augusta University – the number of students declined across the rest of the system.
Enrollment at comprehensive universities fell 3.7%, state universities were down 5.7%, and state colleges dropped 2.4%.
Despite the overall decline, eight institutions had an increase in enrollment, while 17 declined and one remained flat compared to last year.
“The University System of Georgia faces similar challenges to undergraduate enrollment as other public systems, including a booming job market and the lingering effects of the pandemic,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tuesday.
“Still, I’m a facts guy, and the facts show USG graduates will make over $1 million more in their lifetimes thanks to their college degree. … Frankly, we need to do a better job marketing that valuable return on investment.”
The university system saw steady enrollment increases between 2013 and 2020, with record-high headcounts each fall between 2015 and 2020. An all-time high student population of 341,489 signed up for classes in the fall of 2020, despite the pandemic.
Besides the lure of the job market, national research has shown that financial uncertainty and the ongoing effects of the pandemic have contributed to enrollment decisions.
Among the university system schools that did report higher enrollment this fall, Georgia Tech led the way with enrollment growth of 3.3%. Augusta University was next at 2.2%, followed by Gordon State College and the University of Georgia, each of which grew 1.2%.
Other institutions reporting enrollment growth included South Georgia State College, Georgia Gwinnett College, Kennesaw State University, and Albany State University. Dalton State College maintained flat enrollment.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
A nurse provides a patient with an influenza vaccine. (Photo credit: CDC/Brandon Clifton)
ATLANTA – Georgia’s flu activity is currently very high, state epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said during the state Department of Public Health (DPH) board meeting Tuesday.
Flu activity is spread around Georgia but is especially concentrated in metro Atlanta and around Macon and Columbus, Drenzek said.
The state’s flu activity has been high since mid-August and increased to “very high” recently. Currently, in Georgia, 18% of flu tests are positive, while only 9% are positive nationally, Drenzek said.
Outpatient visits for influenza-like symptoms have hit 10% this week. The last time the state saw similarly high rates so early in the flu season was in 2009-10.
The current influenza activity is disproportionately affecting young children and the elderly, Drenzek added. DPH has confirmed 58 institutional flu outbreaks in the last week alone, about half of those in schools and half in long-term care homes.
“Annual vaccination really remains the very best method for preventing seasonal flu and protecting against serious outcomes like hospitalization and death,” Drenzek added. “[It] is recommended for everyone over the age of six months.”
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), another infectious disease that affects primarily young children, has also had high levels of activity in September and October, said Drenzek, though numbers have declined recently. While 20% of tests were positive in mid-September, only 4.6% were positive this week.
Drenzek noted the disease can be deadly and that there is no vaccine for it. RSV mainly affects young children, and infants are at most risk for hospitalization.
DPH Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey noted the department had received reports that hospitals were being hit hard by the high number of cases across the state and that EMS transport had been a problem in some cases. Toomey said she contacted the governor’s office and the Georgia Department of Community Health about those issues.
In other public health developments, the DPH will also launch a new program to educate health-care providers and families about a common cause of hearing loss in young children, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV). Twenty per cent of children born with the disease have a permanent disability such as hearing loss or a developmental delay, Tina Turner, deputy director of child health services at DPH, told the board.
Georgia requires screenings for all newborns for hearing problems so that they can receive early treatment and intervention. Beginning next month, the DPH will roll out an educational campaign about congenital cytomegalovirus to health-care providers and families, Turner said.
Turner said the agency also is putting together a work group to look more closely at increasing CMV screening efforts in newborns in Georgia. Most other states have such a screening program in place, said board member Dr. Cynthia Mercer, an OB-GYN.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first in recent months where COVID was not discussed in detail.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
