Yahoo Finance Georgia runoff election - live: Incumbent Warnock rides ahead of Walker in closely divided state
Georgia will again go to the polls today (Tuesday) in a runoff election for the US Senate between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and former football star Herschel Walker for the Republican Party.
With a win for either party having important ramifications for the running of the Senate, the party faithful from both sides have been making a final-stretch effort to support their candidates.
The latest polls indicate fading hopes for the Republicans, however, as Mr Warnock – the first Black US senator from Georgia – rides ahead of his rival in the race to win another six-year term. His victory would give Democrats a 51-49 advantage in the Senate.
The two candidates offer a stark choice to the Black voters in the state. Mr Warnock, a senior minister of Martin Luther King’s Atlanta church, echoes traditional liberal notions of the Black experience, while Mr Walker, a University of Georgia football icon, advocates the language of white cultural conservatism, as he mocks the Democratic incumbent’s interpretations of King.
Voting in Georgia opens at 7am and closes at 7pm on Tuesday evening, with initial trends expected to emerge quickly after the closing of the polls.
Key points
When will we know the Georgia Senate runoff results
Warnock, Walker offer starkly different choices for Black voters as the incumbent races ahead in midterm
Herschel Walker upset by Obama mocking his vampire vs werewolf debate
Warnock leads in the projections, as Republicans slam Democrats for campaign spendin
13:00 , Namita Singh
In a CNN poll of 1,886 registered voters released on Friday, Raphael Warnock lead Herschel Walker by four percentage points, 52 per cent to 48 per cent. A poll released on Thursday by Emerson College and the Hill also showed Mr Warnock ahead, by two percentage points.
Mr Warnock has held a clear financial advantage, with money pouring in from super PACs and out-of-state supporters.
During the runoff election, outside groups have spent more than $43m on advertisements and other expenses in support of Mr Warnock or in opposition to Mr Walker, according to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. That compares to the $28m spent in support of Walker or opposition to Warnock.
The spending differential is evident to Republican strategist Brian Robinson, who said every time he uses Google or YouTube he sees ads supporting Mr Warnock, while his wife, a staunch Republican, has received mail about abortion rights.
“They have enough to go beyond just turning out their base,” he said of Democrats. “They have enough money to try and persuade people.”
How have Walker and Warnock pitched themselves to the voters in the run up to midterm election?
12:00 , Namita Singh
Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, two Black men pitted against each other in the Georgia midterms, share their experience quite differently, reports the Associated Press.
Mr Warnock doesn’t often use phrases like “the Black church” or “the Black experience,” but infuses those institutions and ideas into his arguments.
The senator sometimes notes that others “like to introduce me and say I’m the first Black senator from Georgia.” He says Georgia voters “did an amazing thing” in 2021 but adds that it’s more about the policy results from a Democratic Senate.
Born in 1969, he calls himself a “son of the civil rights movement.” He talks of Martin Luther King’s desire for “a beloved community,” an inclusive society Mr Warnock says is anchored in the belief that “we all carry a spark of the divine”.
He touts his Senate work to combat maternal mortality, noting the issue is acute among Black women. He campaigns with Black fraternity and sorority alumni. And he tells of his octogenarian mother using her “hands that once picked somebody else’s cotton” to “cast a ballot for her youngest son to be a United States senator.”
Only in America is my story possible
Raphael Warnock
Mr Walker, alternately, is often more direct in identifying himself by race, usually with humor.
“You may have noticed I’m Black,” he tells audiences that are often nearly all-white. But that jovial aside is the precursor to his indictment of a society — and a political rival — he says are consumed by discussions of race and racism.
“My opponent say America ought to apologize for its whiteness,” Mr Walker says in most campaign speeches, a claim based on some of Mr Warnock’s sermons referencing institutional racism.
He invokes King — “a great man” — with a line from his 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” and accuses Mr Warnock and “trying to divide us” by race.
“He’s in a church where a man talked about the content of your character, not the color of your skin,” Mr Walker told supporters in Canton on 10 November, his first rally of the runoff campaign. In Forsyth County last week, he blasted schools he insisted teach “Critical Race Theory.”
“Don’t let anyone tell you you’re racist,” he said in August at a “Women for Herschel” event, which included Alveda King, the conservative evangelical niece of the slain civil rights leader.
He blasts Mr Warnock as anti-law enforcement, but without any context about police killings of Black citizens. “What I want to do is get behind our men and women in blue,” Mr Walker said in Forsyth.
Mr Walker touts his “minority-owned food services company”. Talking to reporters at one fall campaign stop, he recalled being a freshman at the University of Georgia just a decade after the football program integrated with its first Black scholarship players.
But when telling voters of his athletics and professional successes, he doesn’t allude to race, instead talking in terms of faith.“The Lord blessed me,” he says of each milestone.
It’s a contrast to Warnock’s framing of growing up in public housing in Savannah, choosing Morehouse because of King, and receiving a Pell Grant for tuition assistance. “I’m talking about good public policy,” the senator says.
Why were Biden and Trump at a distance from Georgia midterm campaign?
11:00 , Namita Singh
After the general election, president Joe Biden, who has struggled with low approval ratings, promised to help Raphael Warnock in any way he could, even if it meant staying away from Georgia.
Bypassing the president, Mr Warnock decided instead to campaign with former president Barack Obama in the days before the runoff election.
For his part, Herschel Walker was endorsed by Donald Trump but avoided campaigning with him until the final day: The pair conducted a conference call on Monday with supporters, according to a Republican National Committee spokesperson.
Mr Walker’s candidacy is the GOP’s last chance to flip a Senate seat this year. Dr Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Don Bolduc of New Hampshire, all Trump loyalists, already lost competitive Senate races that Republicans once considered part of their path to a majority.
Mr Walker has differentiated himself from Mr Trump in a notable way. The one-time president has spent two years falsely claiming that his loss in Georgia and nationally was fraudulent, despite the fact that numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even his own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.
At his lone debate against Mr Warnock in October, Mr Walker was asked whether he’d accept the results even if he lost. He replied with one word: “Yes”.
What did the two candidates say in their final pitch ahead of the midterms?
10:00 , Namita Singh
Raphael Warnock, whose victory in 2021 was in a special election to serve out the remainder of GOP senator Johnny Isakson’s term, sounded a confident note Monday during a packed day of campaigning. He predicted that he had convinced enough voters, including independents and moderate Republicans who supported Brian Kemp, that he deserves a full term.
“They’ve seen that I will work with anybody that helps me to do good work for the people of Georgia,” said the 53-year-old senator. “I think they’re going to get this right. They know this race is about competence and character.”
Herschel Walker campaigned Monday with his wife, Julie, greeting supporters and offering thanks rather than his usual campaign speech and full-throated attacks on the Democratic counterpart.
“I love y’all, and we’re gonna win this election,” he said at a winery in Ellijay, comparing it to championships he won as an athlete. “I love winning championships.”
The incumbent senator has paired his push for bipartisanship with an emphasis on his personal values, buoyed by his status as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
And, beginning with the closing stretch before the 8 November general election, Mr Warnock added withering takedowns of Mr Walker, using the football star’s rocky past to argue that the political newcomer was “not ready” and “not fit” for high office.
Mr Walker, who used his athletics fame to coast to the GOP nomination, has sought to portray Mr Warnock as a yes-man for president Joe Biden.
The Republican has also sometimes made the attack in especially personal terms, complete with accusing Mr Warnock of having his “back bent” and “being on his knees, begging” at the White House — a searing charge for a Black challenger to level against a Black senator about his relationship with a White president.
Warnock or Walker? Georgia runoff to settle last Senate seat
09:00 , Namita Singh
Georgia voters are set to decide the final Senate contest in the country, choosing between Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker after a four-week runoff blitz that has drawn a flood of outside spending to an increasingly personal fight.
This year’s runoff has lower stakes than the two in 2021, when victories by Mr Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff gave Democrats control of the Senate.
The outcome of today’s contest will determine whether Democrats have an outright 51-49 Senate majority or control a 50-50 chamber based on vice president Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
The runoff brings to a close a bitter fight between Mr Warnock, the state’s first Black senator and the senior minister of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr preached, and Mr Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and political novice who has waged his bid in the mold of former president Donald Trump.
A victory for Mr Warnock would solidify Georgia’s status as a battleground heading into the 2024 presidential election. A win for Mr Walker, however, could be an indication that the Democratic gains in the state might be somewhat limited, especially given that Georgia Republicans swept every other statewide contest last month.
In that election, Mr Warnock led Mr Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast but fell shy of a majority, triggering the second round of voting.
About 1.9 million votes already have been cast by mail and during early voting, an advantage for Democrats whose voters more commonly cast ballots this way. Republicans typically fare better on voting done on Election Day, with the margins determining the winner.
Last month, Mr Walker, 60, ran more than 200,000 votes behind the Republican governor Brian Kemp after a campaign dogged by intense scrutiny of his past, meandering campaign speeches and a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions — accusations that Mr Walker has denied.
Who are Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock? The two men competing for Georgia’s Senate seat
08:00 , Namita Singh
Georgia will hold the final Senate contest of the 2022 midterm election today when Senator Raphael Warnock and hopeful Herschel Walker face each other in the runoff.
Neither candidate received a majority of the vote in November and Georgia law stipulates that as a result, the two would face each other in a runoff a month later.
While Democrats are guaranteed to hold the majority, they only hold 50 seats so far while Republicans hold 49.
A 51-seat majority means they would be less reliant on vice president Kamala Harris to break ties.
Who are the two candidates representing the Democrats and the Republicans? My colleague Eric Garcia reports:
Who are Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock — the two Georgia’s Senate candidates?
Herschel Walker upset by Obama mocking his vampire vs werewolf debate
07:00 , Namita Singh
Senate candidate Herschel Walker was apparently offended by former president Barack Obama’s mocking remarks referencing the Republican’s rambling speech about vampires and werewolves.
Mr Walker complained on Fox News that Mr Obama did not tell “the whole story” when he needled the bizarre soundbite.
Over the weekend, the former president had joked while at a campaign event for Senator Raphael Warnock: “Since the last time I was here, Mr Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia. Like whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf. This is a debate that I must confess I once had myself when I was seven. Then I grew up.”
My colleague Graig Graziosi has more:
Herschel Walker moans about Obama mocking his vampire vs werewolf debate
Warnock, Walker offer starkly different choices for Black voters as the incumbent races ahead in midterm
06:00 , Namita Singh
Raphael Warnock is the first Black US senator from Georgia, having broken the colour barrier for one of the original 13 states with a special election victory in January 2021, almost 245 years after the nation’s founding.
Now he hopes to add another distinction by winning a full six-year term in a Tuesday runoff. Standing in the way is another Black man, Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
Both men have common upbringings in the Deep South in the wake of the civil rights movement and would make history as the first Black person elected from Georgia to a full Senate term.
Yet Mr Warnock and Mr Walker have cut different paths and offer clearly opposing visions for the country, including on race and racism.
Republicans are expecting a pleasant surprise, despite Mr Warnock heading into Election Day as the favourite to win in the closely divided state.
“Republicans seem to have thought they could put up Herschel Walker and confuse Black folks,” said Bryce Berry, president of Georgia’s Young Democrats chapter and a senior at Morehouse College, a historically Black campus where both King and Warnock graduated.
Standing beneath a campus statue of King, Mr Berry continued: “We are not confused.”
Other Black voters raised questions about Mr Walker’s past – his false claims about his business and professional accomplishments, instances of violence against his ex-wife – and the way he stumbles over some public policy discussions as a candidate.
Some said they believe GOP leaders are taking advantage of his fame as a beloved Heisman Trophy winner and national champion running back for the Georgia Bulldogs.
“How can you let yourself be used that way as a Black person?” asked Angela Heard, a state employee from Jonesboro. “I think you should be better in touch with your people instead of being a crony for someone.”
When will we know the Georgia Senate runoff results
04:59 , Namita Singh
The final contest of the 2022 midterm elections takes place today as Democratic incumbent senator Raphael Warnock and Republican nominee Herschel Walker face off in a runoff election in Georgia.
The two initially faced off in November in the general election, but neither received a majority of the vote. Libertarian Senate candidate Chase Oliver received a slice of the vote to come third.
Georgia stipulates that a candidate must receive a majority of the vote, so Mr Warnock and Mr Walker went to a runoff.
Mr Warnock is seeking a full six-year term in the Senate after he won a special election to finish the term of the late senator Johnny Isakson, who resigned in 2019 because of health complications.
Polls in Georgia open at 7am and close at 7pm on Tuesday. Voters who are still in line by 7pm will still be allowed to vote.
Results of the race will likely be known earlier than in the 2021 runoff, due largely to the fact that many voters have already cast their ballot, with early trends expected after the closing of votes in the evening.
04:00 , Namita Singh
Welcome to The Independent’s US politics blog for Tuesday, 06 December 2022, where we provide the latest on the Georgia midterms.
