Democrat Raphael Warnock Wins Georgia Senate Runoff Against Herschel Walker

Democrat Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate runoff, adding to the Democrats’ slim majority in the upper chamber. 

Polls showed the two candidates neck and neck in the weeks leading up to the Georgia runoff; neither candidate was able to clear the state’s 50% voting threshold in November necessary for an outright victory in the general election. Still, Warnock proved to have a slight edge in the numbers. Leading up to the rematch, the Washington Post reported that Georgia saw a record-breaking wave of early voting. Over 1.85 million residents had voted early as of Monday. The Associated Press and major networks called the race for Warnock late Tuesday evening. 

Democrats had already secured control of the Senate leading into Tuesday’s runoff, but Warnock’s win gives them a slightly stronger edge as the party will be forced to reckon with a Republican House majority. Republicans are widely expected to not only block Democratic legislation, and leave President Joe Biden with potentially little to campaign on going into 2024, but also use their power to launch political congressional investigations into Biden’s cabinet and family.  

Still, Warnock’s victory is a sign that Democrats have made tremendous electoral gains in Georgia, a state that voted for Biden two years ago but reelected its Republican governor, Brian Kemp, in November. A senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was a member, Warnock was first elected in a 2021 runoff to serve out the remainder of Johnny Isakson’s term, making Tuesday his fourth Senate election in just two years.

As far as opponents go, however, Walker gave Warnock ample material to go on the attack. Walker’s loss is the bitter culmination of a campaign that has been dogged by scandal—most notably allegations from multiple women that, despite running as an antiabortion Republican, he urged them to have past abortions (which he denies). His own campaign staff anonymously told the Daily Beast that Walker is a “pathological liar.” He’s lied about multiple parts of his resume, including his education record, falsely claiming to have been an FBI agent and a police officer, and owning businesses that don’t exist. He has also admitted to a history of domestic violence, appears to have attempted to keep several of his children a secret from the public (and even his own campaign), and, while campaigning in Georgia, claimed a tax credit in Texas for people who primarily live there.

All of this is in addition to the former footballer’s reputation for spewing outlandish rhetoric. He’s said he’s not sure if evolution is real, made dubious claims about climate change, and just last month, while campaigning in Georgia, delivered a prolonged tangent on vampires and werewolves. “A werewolf can kill a vampire, did you know that?” he exclaimed. “I never knew that. So I didn’t want to be a vampire anymore. I wanted to be a werewolf.” Those puzzling comments later became the subject of mockery from Barack Obama, who stumped for Warnock during a rally in the state last week. “This is a debate that I must confess I once had myself…when I was seven,” said Obama. “Then I grew up.”

Democrats’ final ads highlighted Walker’s “decades of violence against women”—which were affirmed by new allegations in the Daily Beast this past week. On the campaign trail, Warnock would use the line that Walker, a former Heisman trophy winner, “majors in lying.” Meanwhile, Walker sought to paint the Democrat as a Biden lackey with a troubled personal life to little avail. Warnock’s ad spend represented just a fraction of his total war chest, which topped $50 million between October 20 to November 16, as compared to Walker’s $20.9 million over that same period. 

Warnock is now poised to serve his first full term.