U.S. Senate Runoff

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Dec. 6 runoff will decide Warnock and Walker contest for Senate

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Warnock Walker

BY COLLIN KELLEY AND ROSS WILLIAMS

Although Democrats have kept control of the U.S. Senate, all eyes remain on Georgia and the upcoming Dec. 6 runoff between incumbent Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Warnock earned about 35,000 more votes than Walker, but neither candidate crossed the 50% threshold because Libertarian Chase Oliver drew 2% of the vote.

Democrats clinched victory on Nov. 12, four days after the actual election, when Nevada incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto narrowly defeated her Republican challenger Adam Lexalt.

Both Warnock and Walker had already hit the campaign trail again when Masto won, and now it just remains to be seen if Democrats will have 51 seats, ending the deadlock usually broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Because we are in a situation where you don’t have to have an even makeup of the committees — so that’s why it is important, mostly,” President Joe Biden told reporters after Masto was declared the winner. “But it’s simply better, the bigger the number the better.”

A win by Warnock would provide Biden and the Democrats a major boost in helping push through their agenda.

Early voting was scheduled to begin Nov. 28, which is the same date voters must have already requested an absentee ballot. At press time, a judge had approved voting to take place on Saturday, Nov. 26, after Warnock filed suit against the state. Both Fulton and DeKalb counties said they would offer early voting on Nov. 26.

Early voting takes place Monday through Friday, typically Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It won’t be Warnock’s first runoff: He won his Senate seat in 2021by defeating then-incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in a rematch.

“Here’s what this race is about, Georgia, it’s about competence, and it’s about character. It’s about both of those things,” Warnock said at a campaign stop on Nov. 10 in Downtown Atlanta. “We need to be clear, this is not simply about passing this law or passing that law, and it’s certainly not about the process of Washington, DC. This is about who we are as Georgians.”

Walker’s campaign has been plagued by a constant drip of unflattering stories, including allegations of domestic violence, lies about past employment and former girlfriends stating that he paid for them to have abortions despite being publicly antiabortion.

Walker was another candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump who failed to close the deal on Nov. 8, and the GOP watched the promised “red wave” dry up.

Back on the campaign trail, Walker called Warnock a “hypocrite.” “He’s not telling you the truth, and he’s going to continue to be that hypocrite, that wolf in sheep’s clothing, cause he’s not telling you this either: You know, he had voted against our military,” Walker said during a Nov. 10 rally in Canton. “He said you can’t serve God and the military at the same time. Do you know we’re the greatest country in the United States, in the world, because we have the United States military, but yet they’re bringing pronouns, they’re bringing pronouns in our military. So, his pronoun’s gonna be ‘former/senator.’”

According to a report from Politico, newly re-elected Gov. Brian Kemp was lending logistical support to Walker’s campaign.

“Under an agreement that was finalized Thursday, Kemp will transfer his doorknocking, data analytics, phone-banking and micro-targeting program to the Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned super PAC that is bolstering Walker,” the outlet’s Alex Isenstadt writes. “The super PAC will provide the funding for the $2 million-plus effort, which will be run by Kemp’s senior advisers and staffed by more than 100 field workers.”