Topline
he Georgia Senate race will head to a runoff in December after both Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock failed to secure the majority votes needed to win, which could mean control of the Senate will not be known for four more weeks.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – NOVEMBER 08: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) gives a speech at his Election night … [+]
Key Facts
A third candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver, won 2.1% of votes.
Less than 20,000 votes still need to be counted, “not enough to change the race,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reportedly said Wednesday morning on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show, while declaring the contest is headed for a runoff.
Georgia’s election rules require a runoff within four weeks of a federal election if one candidate does not secure the majority of votes, meaning Warnock and Walker would face off in a rematch on Dec. 6.
With both parties tied at 48 Senate seats as of Wednesday afternoon, Democrats need just two more wins to maintain majority control.
Democratic victories in Nevada and Arizona, where races have yet to be called, could guarantee Democrats will hold the majority in the upper chamber before the Georgia runoff.
Key Background
Walker, a former NFL and University of Georgia football player, was plagued by controversies throughout his campaign, none of which appeared to dent his standing in the polls. In October, two women came forward alleging he paid for their abortions, contradicting Walker’s public stance against abortions without exceptions. In the weeks that followed, Walker denied the allegations and publicly scaled back his abortion stance, saying he supports Georgia’s existing law that bans abortions after six weeks, with some exceptions. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rallied behind Walker in the wake of the allegations as the party seeks to wrest control of the upper chamber from Democrats. Headed into Election Day, Walker led Warnock by 1 point in polls, according to FiveThirtyEight. Warnock, a former pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. once served as co-pastor, largely shied away from the Walker allegations, sparing an ad where he highlighted his Republican opponent as a “hypocrite” for supporting an abortion ban. Warnock beat Republican Kelly Loeffler in the 2020 election by a seven-point margin to become the first Black senator from Georgia.
Tangent
Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp beat Democrat Stacey Abrams by seven points to win re-election on Tuesday.
Surprising Fact
Warnock and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) won their Senate seats in 2021 runoff elections when neither secured the majority votes needed to win in November 2020, but the time frame for holding a runoff has since been shortened by the state legislature from nine weeks to four.
Further Reading
Runoff Likely In Georgia Senate Race As Walker And Warnock Remain Nearly Tied (Forbes)
Anti-Abortion PACs Spent $1.1 Million In Just Four Weeks Backing Herschel Walker (Forbes)
Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
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