Raphael Warnock has been declared the winner in Georgia’s runoff election. His victory gives the Democrats a 51-49 majority in the US Senate.
The election’s hallmark was early voting, which shattered records, as nearly 2 million Georgians cast ballots before the day of the runoff. Another 1.4 million voted Tuesday.
“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 told a jubilant crowd in downtown Atlanta.
Walker told his supporters at Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame, “The numbers look like they’re not going to add up. He added, “There’s no excuses in life, and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.”
On the last day of the campaign Warnock and Walker were trying to drive more voters to the polls.
In the general election held on Nov. 8, supporters of both candidates were motivated by the party battle to win control of the U.S. Senate, but many have been persuaded to vote a second time around even when Senate control didn’t hang in the balance.
Democrats could already count on Vice-President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking votes in the Senate, but with the extra seat it won’t be needed as often.
The final stretch of the campaign featured harsh insults from each candidate on his competitor’s character and integrity.
A wide-ranging VoteCast survey of more than 3,200 midterm voters in the state provides a detailed look at the Warnock and Walker coalitions and the attitudes that defined their choices this year. The data reveals advantages — and disadvantages — for both candidates in the runoff.
Fifty-six percent of Georgia voters said the incumbent senator “has the right experience to serve effectively” in the job, compared with just 39% saying that of Walker, a 60-year-old political novice.
“I think Herschel Walker is incompetent and Raphael Warnock has more experience, and I think he’ll get the job done,” said Lolita Baylor, an executive assistant at JCPenney who lives in Morrow. She voted for Warnock.
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