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.
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.
ATLANTA – Georgians get one more chance to decide whether they want to return Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock to Washington or replace him with Republican Herschel Walker in the upcoming Senate runoff.
After neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote in the November election – due to Libertarian Chase Oliver drawing 2% of the vote – the contest was pushed to a December rematch under Georgia’s unique runoff election law.
In the general election, Warnock won 49.5% of vote while Walker won 48.5%. But it’s unclear how many voters of either party will turn out, yet again, for the final vote Dec. 6.
With each candidate’s policy positions already established as the race enters the final stretch, the candidates are trying to best each other on character and competence. They are crisscrossing the state to encourage voters to return to the polls – “one more time,” as Warnock’s campaign slogan puts it. And they are blitzing state airwaves with campaign ads.
One thing they are not doing is holding a traditional pre-Election Day debate. The two men debated each other just once in the run-up to the November election. Walker declined to attend any other debate, leaving Warnock to debate an empty podium. For the runoff, both candidates have eschewed the opportunity and a previously planned debate has been canceled.
Warnock has staked his claim for re-election in the populist steps he has taken in Washington to help Georgians. For example, he frequently touts his votes for caps on Medicare out-of-pocket costs and insulin in the Inflation Reduction Act Congress passed earlier this year. Warnock continues to call for full Medicaid expansion in Georgia which, he argues, would help bolster the state’s hospital infrastructure and improve rural health care.
Warnock also points to his ability to work across the aisle as evidence of his bipartisanship. At a recent campaign stop in Macon, he noted his work with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on getting an expansion of the Interstate 14 corridor in Middle Georgia priority status in last year’s infrastructure bill. (That has not, however, stopped Cruz from attacking Warnock on Twitter recently.)
“I have been very focused on Middle Georgia,” Warnock said. “Smaller rural communities and small businesses are the strength of the Georgia economy.”
Walker has sought to tie Warnock to President Joe Biden and blame the Democratic duo for high inflation and crime rates.
“Y’all seen the drugs coming into this country because they want to leave the border wide open?” Walker said recently to a crowd in Cobb County.
Walker often emphasizes what he considers the problems with “woke” social policies. A recent ad features Walker sitting next to Riley Gaines, a female college swimming champion.
“I was forced to compete against a biological male. … A man won a swimming title that belonged to a woman and Senator Warnock voted to let it happen,” Gaines says.
GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, called for Walker to remove the ad when it started running just one day after a shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colo. that killed five people.
Walker also opposes abortion. While he indicated earlier that he opposes all abortions, with no exceptions for the life of the mother or in the case of rape or incest, during the debate this fall, Walker said he supports Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” which bans most abortions after about six weeks but includes exceptions for rape and incest.
He has denied media reports that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion and encouraged her to have a second abortion.
Warnock made his strong pro-choice position clear during the fall 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.
The Walker camp has continued a steady stream of anti-Warnock ads. One criticizes the alleged eviction of tenants in a building formerly owned by a nonprofit affiliated with Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Warnock is the pastor.
Warnock’s campaign has denied those claims, pointing out that neither Warnock nor Ebenezer is involved in the building’s management and no one in the apartment building has been evicted or kicked out since before the pandemic began.
Independent ads on behalf of Warnock take aim at Walker’s alleged history of violence against women as well as his ex-girlfriend’s abortion.
“Decades of violence against women,” intones a narrator as a timeline of Walker’s alleged violent incidents rolls across the screen. “Now, an ex-girlfriend says Herschel Walker used the threat of violence to force her to have an abortion” the ad continues, showing footage from an interview with the ex-girlfriend, whose name has not been revealed.
But ads funded directly by Warnock’s campaign take a more light-hearted approach . One shows Warnock walking Alvin, a beagle who was made famous by a 2020 campaign ad, and asking “Is it just me or does it feel like we’ve been here before”?
“You’d think Herschel Walker would want to explain what he’d do in the Senate. … Instead, he repeats the same lies, trying to distract from what we all know is true about him,” Warnock says. “But I think Georgians will see his ads for what they are,” Warnock continues, as he throws a symbolic bag of dog poop away.
Both candidates are campaigning with high profile figures. Though Republican Gov. Brian Kemp kept his distance from Walker during the general election campaign, he stumped for Walker last weekend in Cobb County. And Florida Sen. Rick Scott is also continuing to campaign for Walker.
Former President Barack Obama will return to Atlanta Dec. 1 to urge Democrats to turn out for Warnock. The campaign also is sponsoring an event with rock superstars The Dave Matthews Band at a Get Out the Vote Rally in Cobb County on Monday, Nov. 28.
Early voting in some Georgia counties will begin as early as Saturday, Nov. 26. Election Day is Dec. 6.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp stumps for U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker in Cobb County on Saturday.
SMYRNA – Recently re-elected Republican Gov. Brian Kemp campaigned Saturday on behalf of former University of Georgia football star and U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who is facing a Dec. 6 runoff for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat.
“Look, we cannot rest on our laurels here,” Kemp said to the Walker supporters gathered in a parking lot in Cobb County.
“Who do you want to fight for you in the United States Senate? Do you want a guy that represents our values like Herschel Walker or do you want a guy who’s stood with Joe Biden 96% of the time?
“This is going to be a turnout election – who’s more motivated? Is it them or us?,” Kemp said, urging Georgia Republicans to take advantage of early voting and vote as soon as possible.
“I know Herschel Walker will do like we’ve done in Georgia, be fiscally conservative,” Kemp added.
The joint appearance represents a departure from fall campaign events, when Kemp and Walker kept their distance from each other and ran separate campaigns.
Though Kemp defeated Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams for the governor’s seat, Republican Walker fell short of incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock by about 38,000 votes in the Nov. 8 general election. Because neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote, the two face a Dec. 6 runoff.
Kemp and Walker blamed Warnock and President Joe Biden for inflation. Kemp touted steps Georgia has taken under his leadership to address economic pressures, such as temporarily lifting the gas tax.
“We need someone in Washington that’s gonna …. row the boat with Governor Kemp,” Walker told the crowd. “What [Warnock has] been doing is rowing the boat against Governor Kemp.”
“He [Warnock] voted to put men in women’s sports. Men shouldn’t be in women’s sports,” Walker said. “It’s written in my Bible and it says woman came from the rib of the man. Senator Warnock need[s] to read his Bible.”
“They want to bring wokeness in our school house,” Walker added. “Instead of teaching our kids how to read and write, they want to teach them about [critical race theory]. … That won’t happen on my watch.”
Early voting in the runoff is due to begin on Saturday, Nov. 26.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Raphael Warnock (left) and Herschel Walker (right) will meet in a U.S. Senate runoff Dec. 6.
ATLANTA – Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will square off in a Dec. 6 runoff that could decide whether the Senate will continue to be controlled by Democrats or whether the GOP wins a majority.
With 100% of precincts across Georgia reporting results by Wednesday afternoon, it had become clear neither Warnock nor Walker would exceed the 50%-plus-one threshold required under state law to avoid a runoff.
Warnock holds a narrow lead with 49.4% of the vote to 48.5% for Walker. Libertarian Chase Oliver has just less than 2.1% of the vote, enough to keep the two major-party candidates from winning the election outright on Tuesday.
“There’s just not enough numbers out there to change the outcome of this race,” Gabriel Sterling, elections manager for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, told CNN Wednesday.
Sterling said the office already is starting to design runoff ballots to be delivered to all 159 counties in Georgia by the beginning of next week.
He said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is planning for a minimum of five early voting days ahead of the runoff and setting aside a weekend early voting day for Saturday, Nov. 26.
“It’s really about getting all the parts lined up … so voters can make their voices heard on that Dec. 6 runoff,” Sterling said.
Warnock is no stranger to runoffs, having won the Senate seat over incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a runoff in early January of last year.
With the possibility of control of the Senate at stake, both parties are expected to invest huge sums buying campaign ads.
At least voters already weary of the constant barrage of ads that marked the general election campaign won’t have to endure them as long as during the last runoff. While the Warnock-Loeffler runoff stretched out over two months at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, a change in state law since then will limit the upcoming runoff campaign to four weeks.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
