ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was hoping to push back a challenge from Republican football legend Herschel Walker on Tuesday night in their runoff election that will decide t…
By BILL BARROW and JEFF AMY
ATLANTA Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was hoping to push back a challenge from Republican football legend Herschel Walker on Tuesday night in their runoff election that will decide the final U.S. Senate seat.
With Democrats already assured a Senate majority, the race will determine whether the party has a 51-49 advantage or a 50-50 edge with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote. Last year, runoff victories by Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff gave Democrats control of the chamber for the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
In the November election, Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million but fell shy of a majority, triggering the second round of voting. About 1.9 million runoff votes already had been cast by mail and during early voting, an advantage for Democrats whose voters more commonly cast ballots this way. Republicans typically fare better on Election Day itself.
The extended campaign became a bitter fight between two Black men in a major Southern state: Warnock, the state’s first Black senator and the senior minister of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and political novice backed by former President Donald Trump.
A Warnock victory would solidify Georgia’s status as a battleground heading into the 2024 presidential election. A win for Walker, however, could be an indication of Democratic weakness, especially given that Georgia Republicans swept every other statewide contest last month.
Walker awaited results Tuesday night at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta, while Warnock was at a hotel less than a mile away.
A 51-49 Democratic advantage in the Senate would mean that the party would no longer have to negotiate a power-sharing deal with Republicans and won’t have to rely on Harris to break as many tie votes.
Last month, Walker, 60, ran more than 200,000 votes behind Republican Gov. Brian Kemp after a campaign dogged by his meandering campaign speeches and by damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions — accusations that he denied.
