The Senate race between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Republican Herschel Walker appears headed to a runoff.
Neither candidate in the Senate race looks likely to surpass the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a runoff by state law, with 98% of the vote counted. Warnock leads Walker 49.3% to 48.6%, while Libertarian Chase Oliver appears to have played a spoiler role, with 2.1% of the vote.
In the gubernatorial race between incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) and his 2018 Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, the governor was declared the winner before 80% of precincts reported their results, given that he earned 54% of the vote and comfortably evaded a runoff.
SPLIT-TICKET GEORGIA VOTERS KEEPING WALKER FROM VICTORY WHILE REELECTING KEMP
While it’s rare for Georgia voters to split their ticket, a number of Republicans and independent Kemp voters hesitated on backing Walker due to his string of controversies, including multiple accusations of domestic violence and reports he paid for numerous women’s abortions despite campaigning on an anti-abortion platform.
Warnock and Walker will now begin a four-week campaign blitz before a rematch, sans other underperforming candidates, on Dec. 6. Both acknowledged as such at their respective election night parties early Wednesday morning.
“We’re not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there’s still a little work yet to do,” Warnock told supporters still waiting up at an Atlanta hotel ballroom around 2 a.m. local time. “I understand that at this late hour, you may be a little tired, but whether it’s later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia.”
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Walker expressed confidence in his runoff chances, telling those still waiting at his suburban Atlanta election party: “I don’t come to lose.” The Heisman Trophy-winning football star-turned-politician, who was in a statistical tie with Warnock in the final weeks of the race, added that his campaign knew in advance that the race would be close but that “it wasn’t over.”
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for Georgia’s secretary of state who helped oversee the 2020 election and subsequent runoff, tweeted early Wednesday, “While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the U.S. Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6.”
