Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock wins reelection

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock was narrowly re-elected Tuesday night, beating back Republican challenger and former football star Herschel Walker in a nail-biting, high-stakes race that finally brought an end to the 2022 midterms.

The Associated Press and numerous other outlets projected the incumbent as the winner three and a half hours after the polls closed.

Democrats had already secured control of the U.S. Senate in the weeks before Warnock and Walker were forced into a close runoff.

But Warnock’s victory gives Democrats a little breathing room while sending a message to former President Donald Trump, who loudly backed Walker decades after the retired NFL running back played for a professional football team that Trump owned in New Jersey.

Warnock thanked supporters and God for his win.

“After a hard-fought campaign, or should I say campaigns, it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock said in his victory speech in Atlanta. “You have put in the hard work, and here we are standing together.”

Ballot counters worked overtime tallying votes hours after polls closed across the state. The election results seesawed for much of the night before Warnock, a minister who pastors Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church — the spiritual home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — finished on top.

Warnock, the state’s first Black U.S. senator, benefited from near-total support among African-American voters and a united Democratic base.

He also won a majority of young voters, women, college graduates and suburbanites along with two thirds of self-described moderates, exit polls showed.

Warnock notched a strong performance in and around the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta, while Walker maintained his advantage in Republican-leaning rural areas.

Walker, 60, conceded in a speech to supporters at the College Football Hall of Fame, where he is enshrined.

“There’s no excuses in life,” he said. “I’m not going to make any now. We put up one heck of a fight.”

Walker said he would continue to fight for Georgia.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff,” Walker said, citing his Heisman trophy and other awards. “But the best thing I’ve done in my whole entire life is run for this senate seat right here.”

A 51-49 Democratic advantage in the Senate means the party won’t have to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to break as many tie votes.