ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has opened a double-digit lead over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, according to a poll released Wednesday.
However, Georgia’s U.S. Senate race is in a dead heat, the Capitol Beat/Georgia News Collaborative Poll found in a survey of 1,030 likely general election voters conducted Sept. 15-Oct. 4 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.
The survey found state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, with a slight lead for the open lieutenant governor’s seat over Democrat Charlie Bailey.
GOP incumbents hold a solid lead in both the races for attorney general and secretary of state, according to the poll.
Kemp drew the support of 51% of poll respondents to 40.7% for Abrams, giving the governor a lead of 10.3%. Libertarian Shane Hazel was a distant third with 2.3%, while 6% of those surveyed were undecided.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was favored by 46.4% of the poll respondents, to 43.4% for Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Given the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, the race is essentially tied. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, trailed at 4.1%, while 6.1% of those surveyed were undecided.
Support for Jones stood at 43.5%, with 38.8% of survey respondents favoring Bailey. Factoring in the margin of error left Jones with a slight lead over his Democratic rival for lieutenant governor. Libertarian Ryan Graham was third at 4.0%, and 13.8% of respondents were undecided.
While Kemp polled slightly above the 50%-plus-one margin needed to avoid a Dec. 6 runoff, the race for Senate and possibly the contest for lieutenant governor could be headed toward an extra round of voting.
The survey found Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger well ahead of state Rep. Bee Nguyen, 47.9% to 33.9%. Libertarian Ted Metz stood third at 6.3%, with 11.8% undecided.
Likewise, GOP Attorney General Chris Carr held a strong lead over Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, 47.4% to 38.8%. Libertarian Martin Cowen trailed at 3.6%, with 10.2% undecided.
Although both Raffensperger and Carr were short of the margin needed to win the Nov. 8 election outright, the large percentage of undecided voters left room for the two incumbents to get over the threshold.
Kemp’s lead over Abrams in the gubernatorial contest has widened over recent polls.
“I think he’s done a good job,” said Misty Dunn, 45, an archaeologist from Meriwether County, a regular Republican voter who supports Kemp even though she disagrees with his staunch opposition to abortion.
“I can’t vote the other way on that one issue,” Dunn said.
Aaron Williams, 42 of McDonough, who works for a telecommunications company, said he plans to vote for Abrams primarily because she is not a Republican, a party he has soured on.
“The conservative side has gone full on hypocrisy,” Williams said. “I can’t get behind a single conservative candidate.”
Wendy Meehan, 72, of Madison County, said she will vote to elect Warnock to a full Senate term because her positions in favor of Medicaid expansion and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion align with the Democrats.
Meehan said she doesn’t believe Walker is qualified to serve in the Senate.
“He should not be a Senate candidate,” she said. “Georgia could do much better than him.”
Lisa Elias, 53, a business owner from Gainesville, said she liked Walker when she saw him speak at her church.
“He seemed like a good man,” Elias said. “I’m a Christian, and I’m conservative in my values.”
But some Republican voters are starting to have concerns about Walker following allegations of violence against his ex-wife and that he paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion.
“If these things are true, that’s horrible,” said Sarah Simcox, 56, a kindergarten teacher in Forsyth County. “But I think politically he might be better [than Warnock]. … I’m struggling with it. It’s going to take a lot of prayer.”
Black voters who responded to the poll overwhelmingly preferred Democrats Abrams and Warnock, not surprising since most Black voters support Democratic candidates. But Warnock outperformed Abrams among that group of voters, 89% to 80.7%.
Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, drew only 2% support among Black voters, while Kemp was preferred by 8% of Black survey respondents.
Kemp held a solid lead over Abrams among men, 58% to 33.3%. Walker’s lead among men was strong but not as large as Kemp’s. Walker was supported by 52.5% of men who responded to the poll, compared to 37.7% favoring Warnock.
Warnock, however, enjoyed a huge lead among women, 53.6% to 36.3% for Walker. Women were much more evenly divided in the governor’s race, with 46.6% preferring Abrams to 45.4% supporting Kemp.
Broken down by age, Kemp held the edge among all groups except for those between the ages of 30 and 44. Among that group, Abrams led 50.6% to 39%.
Warnock led decisively among younger voters, those between the ages of 18 and 44. Walker turned the tables with a solid lead among the 45-64 age group and a smaller lead among voters 65 and older.
Kemp polled strongest among voters with a high school education or less, while Abrams’ biggest advantage was among college graduates.
The same was true in the Senate race, with Walker scoring highest among those with a high school diploma or less, and Warnock’s best showing coming from poll respondents with a college degree.
The poll was conducted via telephone, about 90% through cellphone interviews and 10% over landline connections.
The survey results were weighted to represent respondents proportionally in terms of race, sex, age, and education.
Staff writer Rebecca Grapevine contributed to this report.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to a supporter after his campaign stop in Carrollton on Tuesday (photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine).
CARROLLTON – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker spoke to supporters at a campaign stop in Carrollton Tuesday but did not directly address recent unfavorable allegations about his payment for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion and violence against his ex-wife.
In the past few weeks, Walker has faced a string of troubling allegations. His son, Christian Walker, took to social media to criticize his father’s violence and parenting.
And the Republican’s staunch anti-abortion stance has been called into question by allegations from an ex-girlfriend who said Walker had paid for her abortion in 2009 and pressured her to get an abortion when she became pregnant a second time. Walker has denied the allegations.
But during Tuesday’s West Georgia campaign stop, fellow Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas praised Walker before a cheering crowd of supporters in a local shopping center parking lot.
Walker did not directly address the recent allegations against him at the rally but suggested that the claims are political smears aimed at dividing his followers.
“They’ll do what it takes because they want this seat,” Walker said.
Walker also spoke about his core campaign themes: inflation, crime, drug trafficking, and what he termed “wokeness” in American society, which encompasses social themes such as transgender rights and racism.
“Have you seen that [Southern] border wide open?” Walker asked, saying his Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock had done nothing to help build a wall on the border in two years in office.
Walker also criticized a move to grant transgender rights within the U.S. military.
“These are wartimes. What happened to push-ups? Iran and Russia are not talking about pronouns,” Walker said to cheers from the crowd.
And Walker took aim at Warnock, who is seeking a full term in the Senate in November. Warnock is the longtime pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former church of Martin Luther King Jr.
“All he [Warnock] talks about is the color of your skin,” Walker said. “Has he ever heard of forgiveness? Has he ever heard of redemption?
“They want to tell white kids, ‘You’re an oppressor.’ They want to tell Black kids, ‘You’re a victim.’ … Don’t let them separate you.”
Walker’s decision to campaign with Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, drew criticism from Democrats.
“Walker’s embrace of Rick Scott – and his disastrous plan to slash Medicare and Social Security highlights just how much is at stake for Georgians in this U.S. Senate race,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“While Rev. Warnock fought to lower prescription drug costs for Georgia seniors and protect Social Security, Herschel Walker is campaigning with Rick Scott, who’s fighting to cut Social Security for more than 1.9 million Georgians who rely on it,” said Sarafina Chitika, press secretary for Warnock. “Georgia seniors deserve a senator who will stand up for them, not someone who sees a friend in a politician who wants to slash their benefits.”
With just one month to go in the nationally watched Senate race that could determine the party balance in Washington, both candidates are benefitting from an influx of cash.
During the third quarter, the Warnock campaign raised about $26 million, while Walker raised about $12 million.
However, the Walker campaign said his fundraising amount was the largest quarterly total for any Republican U.S. Senate candidate in this election cycle.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Political action committees supporting U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Republican challenger Herschel Walker released ads Tuesday accusing each other of domestic violence.
Warnock’s ad, funded by the Democrat-aligned PAC Georgia Honor, features the words of Walker’s son, Christian, a Republican activist who lashed out at his father last week following a media report alleging Walker had paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2011.
Walker showed up at his ex-wife’s home with a gun and refused to leave, the younger Walker said.
“[Herschel Walker] threatened to kill us and had us move six times in six months running from [his] violence,” the ad’s narrator went on, quoting charges Christian Walker leveled at his father Oct. 3 in a social media thread.
Walker’s PAC, 34N22, countered Tuesday with an ad showing recently uncovered Bodycam footage of Warnock’s ex-wife during a domestic violence altercation in March 2020.
Ouleye Nodoye is shown in tears accusing Warnock of running over her foot with his car.
“Warnock ran over his wife with his car, refused to pay child support, and neglected the terms of his divorce,” 34N22 spokesman Stephen Lawson said. “He continues to throw stones in a glass house, and his blatant hypocrisy will now be on full display for Georgia voters.”
The dueling ads come just days before Walker and Warnock are due to meet in what apparently will be the only debate of the campaign. The two will share the same stage Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. in Savannah.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker raised more than $12 million during the last three months, the former University of Georgia football star’s campaign reported Wednesday.
That’s less than half of the more than $26 million incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., raised during the third quarter.
But the Walker campaign boasted his haul during July, August, and September was the largest quarterly total for any Republican Senate candidate during this election cycle.
“My team and I have traveled to every corner of Georgia, and everywhere we go, people have made it clear that Raphael Warnock has sided with [President] Joe Biden and left them behind,” Walker said in a statement released Wednesday.
“The people are so fired up for a new warrior in Washington that they have literally put their money where their mouths are.”
Walker’s campaign manager, Scott Paradise, criticized Warnock for running “a gutter campaign focused on lies and personal attacks.”
The Warnock campaign has bombed the airwaves with TV ads calling attention to Walker’s violent past, including holding a gun to the temple of his ex-wife Cindy Grossman.
Walker has responded that he was suffering from dissociative identity disorder at that time, a mental illness from which he said he has recovered.
Walker’s campaign reported Wednesday that the challenger had more than $7 million cash on hand as of the end of last month. A day earlier, the Warnock campaign reported $13.7 million cash on hand through Sept. 30.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republican U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker, a staunch opponent of abortion, is denying a media report that he paid for an abortion for a girlfriend in 2009.
But his son reacted to Walker’s response to the story The Daily Beast posted on its website Monday by calling his father on Twitter a liar and hypocrite.
The elder Walker told FOX News host Sean Hannity Monday night the story is “a flat-out lie” concocted by supporters of incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
“They’ll do anything to win this seat,” Walker said. “They want to make it about everything else except the true problems we have in this country: inflation, the border wide open, crime. They don’t want to talk about that, so they’re making up lies.”
Walker is vowing to sue The Daily Beast for defamation.
Meanwhile, his 24-year-old son, Christian Walker, criticized his father on Twitter after The Daily Beast posted the abortion story. The younger Walker said he has been mostly absent from the campaign trail because his father has not owned up to his past.
“I did one event last year when we were told he was going to get ahead of his past and hold himself accountable,” Christian Walker said. “That never happened.”
Warnock’s campaign has been running ads featuring Herschel Walker’s ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, describing how he held a gun to her head.
Walker has said he is accountable for his past violent behavior but that he was struggling with dissociative identity disorder at the time, a mental illness about which he later wrote a book.
The younger Walker, who has gained a reputation as a conservative influencer, said the family tried to talk Herschel Walker out of running for the Senate because of his violent past.
Christian Walker took his father to task for posing in campaign ads as a “family man.”
“You don’t get to pretend you’re some moral family guy,” the younger Walker said. “Talk policy. Do not lie.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation
