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Walker, Warnock
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will square off in a Dec. 6 runoff that could decide whether the Senate will continue to be controlled by Democrats or whether the GOP wins a majority.
With 100 percent of precincts across Georgia reporting results by Wednesday afternoon, it had become clear neither Warnock nor Walker would exceed the 50%-plus-one threshold required under state law to avoid a runoff.
Warnock holds a narrow lead with 49.4 percent of the vote to 48.5 percent for Walker. Libertarian Chase Oliver has just less than 2.1 percent of the vote, enough to keep the two major-party candidates from winning the election outright on Tuesday.
“There’s just not enough numbers out there to change the outcome of this race,” Gabriel Sterling, elections manager for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, told CNN Wednesday.
Sterling said the office already is starting to design runoff ballots to be delivered to all 159 counties in Georgia by the beginning of next week.
He said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is planning for a minimum of five early voting days ahead of the runoff and setting aside a weekend early voting day for Saturday, Nov. 26.
“It’s really about getting all the parts lined up … so voters can make their voices heard on that Dec. 6 runoff,” Sterling said.
Gov. Brian Kemp did not require a runoff, defeating challenger Stacey Abrams again with 53.43 percent of the vote.
Warnock is no stranger to runoffs, having won the Senate seat over incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a runoff in early January of last year.
With the possibility of control of the Senate at stake, both parties are expected to invest huge sums buying campaign ads.
Ads for both candidates flooded Georgia airwaves and digital outlets. Warnock raised more than $100 million against Walker’s $37.7 million. But money appears to have made little difference in the outcome of the race, since neither candidate earned enough votes to prevent a runoff.
At least voters already weary of the constant barrage of ads that marked the general election campaign won’t have to endure them as long as during the last runoff. While the Warnock-Loeffler runoff stretched out over two months at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, a change in state law since then will limit the upcoming runoff campaign to four weeks.
“We always knew this race would be close,” Warnock told supporters gathered at a downtown Atlanta hotel late Tuesday night. “Y’all just hang in there.”
“I don’t come to lose,” Walker told his supporters, who had gathered near Truist Park in Cobb County. “He’s going to be tough to beat ... just hang in there a little bit longer.”