Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Herschel Walker in the runoff for Georgia’s Senate seat this week.
ATLANTA – Georgia voters turned out in large numbers to vote in the U.S. Senate runoff on Tuesday, propelling incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock to a narrow victory over Republican Herschel Walker.
Back in the November general election, Republicans claimed a clean sweep of statewide constitutional offices, from the governor down to agriculture commissioner. But the December runoff for the Senate seat reversed that trend, with Warnock ultimately winning by a narrow margin of about 97,000 votes.
Political scientists pointed to several factors that helped Warnock buck the statewide tilt toward the GOP.
One was the relative weakness of Republican challenger Herschel Walker’s candidacy. Walker’s campaign was dogged by a number of serious character allegations, including that he paid for his ex-girlfriends’ abortions despite his public pro-life stance and that he had been violent toward his ex-wife.
“Candidate quality still matters,” said Pearl Dowe, an African American studies and political science professor at Emory University.
Dowe said former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of political neophyte Walker – and some Georgia voters’ resistance to Trump’s politics – played a role in the “tepid” support of Republicans for Walker.
Warnock effectively pitched his message to more moderate voters in Georgia, allowing him to pick up crucial votes, Dowe said.
“The reasons we got a different result yesterday [from the November general elections] is because Republicans nominated Herschel Walker as their senatorial candidate,” agreed University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock.
Bullock said Warnock’s runoff victory was built on small, piece-by-piece gains across the state. He pointed to Baldwin County, home of Milledgeville and Georgia College and State University. Back in November, Walker bested Warnock by 89 votes in Baldwin. But this time around, Warnock beat Walker by 153 votes, effectively flipping the county.
Baldwin is one of five counties that Warnock flipped from red to blue between November and December, Bullock said.
One big difference between the November race and the December runoff was the absence of a third-party candidate that could siphon away crucial votes. Back in November, Libertarian Chase Oliver pulled about 2% of the vote away from the two mainstream candidates.
This time around, voters had only two choices: Walker or Warnock. While it’s difficult to track exactly what happened to the people who voted for Oliver in November, it’s clear that Warnock benefited from the narrowed field, Bullock said.
Walker also did not perform as well in December as he did in November in solidly red counties, Bullock added, pointing to Forsyth County as one example. While Walker won both times, he pulled around 66,000 votes in November, dropping down to only around 58,000 votes in December. Such small declines added up across the state, Bullock said.
After the November results rolled in, it became clear that no matter what happened in the Peach State, Republicans would not be able to control the Senate in Washington. That’s because going into the Georgia runoff, Democrats controlled 50 seats while Republicans had 49. Some Republicans who might have otherwise turned out to ensure party control of the Senate may have skipped this week’s vote, Bullock said.
Ultimately, the Peach State is still almost evenly divided when it comes to party politics, despite Democrats’ historic victories in the last election cycle two years ago.
“I know some Democrats were saying after 2020 that this is a blue state,” Bullock said. “Well, this isn’t a blue state. It’s probably a pink state, pink tending toward purple.”
Still, Democrats will now have a very slim – but significant – majority in the U.S. Senate: 51-49. That makes a difference in a number of areas.
“Each Senate committee will have a Democratic majority rather than having equal numbers of Democrats or Republicans,” Bullock said. “That means it will be easier for those committees to take a straight party-line vote and move forward and hold the hearings they want to, hear the witnesses they want to.”
And though 51 votes is not enough to break a filibuster, which requires 60 votes, budget bills and nominations cannot be filibustered, Bullock said. So Democrats should be able to get Senate approval for budget-related measures.
One Democrat — such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who frequently votes with Republicans – won’t be able to hold up those bills.
“The Senate really does matter,” said Dowe. “We see that a lot of the bills over the last few years that increased spending, increased support for poverty, for children, overall quality of life for low-income persons..when they reached the Senate because of the [50-50] tie many of those policies … were actually watered down.”
“Where some of the bills tend to have more emphasis on direct support for particular issues that are considered Democratic issues….you won’t see that watered down type of haggling,” said Dowe, pointing to environmental and trade regulations as examples.
But don’t expect a Democratic free-for-all in Washington. Non-budget bills are still subject to a filibuster. Also, the U.S. House of Representatives is now in Republican hands, putting a check on the Democratic Senate and President Joe Biden.
“Do you expect to see massive new things coming out of Congress?” Bullock said. “Don’t delude yourself.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia Power has completed cold hydro testing for the second of two additional nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle, confirming the reactor’s coolant system functions as designed, the utility announced Wednesday.
The completion of cold hydro testing is required to support the last major test remaining at the facility’s Unit 4, hot functional testing, which Georgia Power expects to begin by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, the first of the new reactors, Unit 3, is due to go into service early next year.
“The team at the Vogtle 3 & 4 site continues to make important progress as we move closer to bringing online the first new nuclear units to be built in the country in over 30 years,” said Chris Womack, Georgia Power’s chairman, president, and CEO. “These units are a long-term investment for our state and essential to building the future of energy for Georgia.”
The completion of the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle south of Augusta has been a long time coming. The two reactors were originally expected to go into service in 2016 and 2017, respectively. But the work was delayed by the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, the original prime contractor on the project, as well as pandemic-related disruptions to the construction workforce.
The delays caused a series of cost overruns that more than doubled the original expected price tag of $14 billion.
The project’s critics have complained for years that Georgia Power could have found less expensive ways to increase its power generating capacity to meet the needs of a growing number of customers, including renewable sources of energy. Indeed, the two new nuclear reactors coming online will account for a significant portion of a series of rate increases the utility intends to seek from the state Public Service Commission during the next couple of years.
Georgia Power officials say the two new units are expected to power more than 500,000 homes and businesses with emission-free energy. Southern Nuclear, a Georgia Power subsidiary, will operate the new units on behalf of four co-owners: Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia House Speaker Jan Jones appointed former House Majority Whip Matt Hatchett Wednesday to chair the House Appropriations Committee.
“Over his dozen years of service in the House, Chairman Hatchett has earned the trust and respect of our colleagues and brings considerable expertise to this new leadership position,” said Jones, R-Milton.
“The House takes very seriously our stewardship role in working with both the governor and the state Senate to produce a conservative budget that invests wisely for Georgia’s future. I know Chairman Hatchett will ably lead the members of the Appropriations Committee in their important work.”
Hatchett, R-Dublin, succeeds Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn, who chaired the budget-writing committee for 12 years. England did not seek re-election this year.
Hatchett, elected to the House in 2010, has served in numerous leadership roles during his tenure, including as a governor’s floor leader, majority caucus chairman and, most recently, majority caucus whip. He currently serves on the Appropriations Committee’s General Government Subcommittee and has been a member of two other appropriations subcommittees.
Hatchett received a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics from Presbyterian College. He currently serves as director of mission enhancement for the Mercer University School of Medicine.
As House speaker pro tempore, Jones moved up to speaker last month upon the death of Speaker David Ralston. The House Republican Caucus has nominated House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, to take the reins as speaker when the General Assembly begins the 2023 session next month.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday in the race for Georgia’s Senate seat.
ATLANTA – Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday in a closely fought race for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, giving Democrats a slim two-seat majority in the upper house in Washington.
Warnock was leading Walker 51.1% to 48.8% as of 11:50 p.m. Tuesday night, with 98% of precincts reporting. The Warnock victory in the final contest of the 2022 election cycle gave Democrats 51 seats in the Senate to 49 for Republicans.
Though Warnock won around 38,000 more votes than Walker in the November general election, neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote required by Georgia law to prevent a runoff, pushing the nationally watched race to a December rematch.
The lengthy campaign that finally concluded Tuesday night was the most expensive race of the 2022 cycle, with outside groups and the candidates’ campaigns spending more than $401 million in the race, according to campaign-finance tracking group OpenSecrets.
“It is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock said to a jubilant crowd celebrating the victory at a downtown Atlanta hotel.
“The people once again rose up in a multi-racial, multi-religious coalition of conscience,” Warnock said.
“I will walk with you even as I work for you,” Warnock vowed, promising to represent all Georgians, not just those who voted for him. “I will always be a voice for Georgia. All of Georgia.”
Walker conceded the race on Tuesday night.
“I’m not gonna make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” Walker told his supporters. “I want you to believe in America and continue to believe in the Constitution and believe in our elected officials.”
“The best thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life is run for this Senate seat right here and the reason I’m gonna say that is I had a chance to meet all you and hear what you guys feel about this country,” Walker added.
Going overtime to achieve victory wasn’t new to Warnock. The pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta first won a U.S. Senate seat in a January 2021 runoff.
During this year’s lengthy campaign, Warnock portrayed himself as a protector of middle-class Georgians’ economic interests, touting his support for a $35-per-month cap on insulin and other drug spending caps for Medicare beneficiaries passed earlier this year. Warnock is also a strong supporter of full Medicaid expansion in Georgia as a way to bolster the state’s hospital infrastructure and improve rural health care.
Walker, one of the most storied University of Georgia football players of all time, was a political neophyte when he was tapped by former President Donald Trump to run for the seat last year.
Walker sought to tie Warnock to President Joe Biden and blamed the Democratic duo for high inflation and crime rates. The Republican also emphasized what he considers the problems with “woke” social policies, often telling crowds he would protect women’s sports from the participation of transgender athletes and criticizing Democrats for focusing on racism in American history.
Abortion was one of the most important issues in the race as Georgia’s law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect this fall. Warnock made his strong pro-choice position clear during the campaign, saying that “a patient’s room is too narrow and small and cramped a space for a woman, her doctor and the United States government,” and that abortion rights are protected by the fundamental right to privacy.
At one point, Walker indicated that he opposes all abortions, with no exceptions for the life of the mother or in the case of rape or incest. But during a debate this fall, he said he supports Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” which bans most abortions after about six weeks but includes exceptions for rape and incest.
The Walker campaign was dogged by a number of serious allegations about his character. Two ex-girlfriends alleged that Walker paid for their abortions, despite his public pro-life stance.
Warnock campaign ads highlighted Walker’s alleged violence against his ex-wife. More recently, reports surfaced that Walker received a Texas homestead tax exemption despite having voted and run for office in Georgia.
Georgians turned out in droves to cast their ballots during the early voting period ahead of Tuesday’s runoff, with more than 1.7 million voting early during the newly shortened period. Total turnout as of Tuesday night was 3.5 million, a record for a midterm runoff in Georgia.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATHENS – Gov. Brian Kemp challenged members of the General Assembly Tuesday to build on the successes that played a major role in the Republican governor’s reelection last month.
Echoing many of the themes of this year’s campaign, Kemp touted Georgia’s achievements during the last two years in economic development, education, and public safety.
On the economic front, the past year has marked the creation of 51,132 private-sector jobs and more than $21.2 billion in investment, Kemp said during a luncheon speech at the University of Georgia closing out the Biennial Institute, a three-day orientation session for newly elected legislators.
Most of those jobs and 85% of that investment occurred outside of metro Atlanta, he said.
“I consider these milestones to be the new level to beat,” he said.
Kemp reiterated a pledge he made on the campaign trail to seek another $1 billion state income tax cut on top of the $1 billion reduction the General Assembly approved this year.
The governor reminded his audience of the $2,000 pay raise the legislature approved for teachers this year. The increase was the final installment of a $5,000 raise the governor promised on the campaign trail four years ago.
Another education-related accomplishment Kemp cited increased benefits through the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships program to 90% of tuition coverage. HOPE provided full tuition coverage until 2011, when growing demand for scholarships combined with the rising costs of tuition forced the General Assembly to reduce benefits.
In the public safety arena, Kemp said he plans to continue a crackdown on human trafficking and on criminal gangs recruiting children. Last year, the governor formed a multi-agency Crime Suppression Unit that has made hundreds of arrests, while Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr more recently created a Gang Prosecution Unit that has produced 11 indictments of 46 suspected gang members.
“We cannot rest on our laurels,” Kemp said. “This is an ongoing fight against criminals.”
The biennial conference, sponsored by UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, drew an unusually large crop of incoming freshman legislators, veteran lawmakers, legislative staffers, and lobbyists. Topics of panel discussions during the three days included transportation, health care, economic development, and cybersecurity.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
