UPDATE CNN HAS PROJECTED RAPHAEL WARNOCK HAS WON
ATLANTA (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican former football star Herschel Walker were locked in a tight battle as results came in from a runoff election in Georgia that will determine whether Democrats can expand their razor-thin Senate majority.
With 72% of the estimated vote tallied, Warnock led Walker by 50.4% to 49.6%, according to Edison Research. Final results were not expected until later in the evening.
Gabriel Sterling, a state election official, said turnout was high, both on Tuesday and through mail and early voting. “The people of Georgia were very excited to vote,” he said on CNN.
The race is a last test of Donald Trump’s clout with midterm voters as he seeks the Republican nomination to challenge President Joe Biden in 2024. The former president, who endorsed Walker, had a mixed record in his most competitive endorsements for Congress in this year’s elections.
Warnock held a commanding lead in the state’s biggest counties, including the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta. But Walker led in Republican-heavy rural counties, where vote tallies were slower to be reported.
Walker’s campaign was plagued by repeated gaffes and a variety of allegations, including claims by former girlfriends that he paid for their abortions, even though he has campaigned for the procedure to be outlawed. He has denied the accusations.
The race was the most expensive of the 2022 U.S. midterm election season, with more than $400 million spent. The contest went to a runoff after neither candidate secured 50% of the vote on Nov. 8.
A victory by Warnock would give Democrats a 51-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate, which would make it slightly easier to advance Biden’s nominees for judicial and administrative posts. Most legislation would still require Republican support.
A Walker win, on the other hand, would keep the Senate at its current 50-50 split, with Democrats controlling the chamber thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote.
On a wider scale, a Warnock victory could solidify Georgia as a battleground in presidential elections. It also would be another midterm defeat at the polls for a protege of Trump, who spurred Walker to run.
At least 1.9 million people cast their votes before Election Day, equal to 47% of the Nov. 8 turnout. Analysts say the early votes likely tilted Democratic, which means Walker needed strong Election Day turnout from his supporters to overcome the gap.
“We should not rest on our laurels. The job is not done. The truth is my opponent could still win this election,” Warnock told a crowd in Norcross, Georgia, on Tuesday.
Warnock is pastor of the historic Atlanta church where assassinated civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Both Warnock and Walker are Black.
WALKER’S PAST
Along with the abortion claims, former girlfriends have accused Walker of domestic abuse. He has also faced accusations that he maintains his primary residence in Texas, not Georgia.
Walker has denied the charges, but they may have discouraged some Republican voters. Warnock edged him 49.44% to 48.49% in November, even as Republican Governor Brian Kemp and other statewide Republican candidates easily won re-election.
At a diner in Marietta, Walker deflected questions about his character, which Warnock made a centerpiece of his campaign.
“Right now I put my character up against Raphael Warnock any day,” Walker said on Tuesday.
This is the third Senate runoff in two years in the state – and the second for Warnock, who first won the seat in a runoff in January 2021. Republicans won a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the Nov. 8 election, but fell short of the “red wave” that some in the party had forecast, despite flagging approval ratings for Biden.
While Biden did not campaign for Warnock, former President Barack Obama rallied for him in Atlanta last week.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Additional reporting by Jason Lange, Eric Beech and Doina Chiacu; writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Rosalba O’Brien)