CBS News projects incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock to win the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, defeating Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
This will be Warnock’s first full six-year term.
In the general election, Warnock led Walker by over 37,000 votes, but with 49.4% of the vote, Warnock failed to cross the 50% mark needed to avoid a runoff.
A record-breaking number of early voters showed up for the contest, shattering all previous records. According to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling, over 1.8 million people voted early. Friday, the last day of early voting, was the largest day of early voting ever, with more than 353,000 Georgians casting ballots. According to the country’s top election official, Gabriel Sterling.
Early voting for the contest was highest in several Democratic counties around Atlanta, such as Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties. Some GOP leaders are looking ahead to the upcoming election with the understanding that they must increase their early voting numbers to be competitive.
“What we do need is for our voters to vote early,” RNC Chair Rona McDaniel said on Fox News earlier Tuesday. “I’ve said it over and over again. There were many in 2020 who said, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early,’ and we have to stop that.”
A record-breaking number of early voters showed up for the contest, shattering all previous records. According to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling, over 1.8 million people voted early. Friday, the last day of early voting, was the largest day of early voting ever, with more than 353,000 Georgians casting ballots. According to Sterling.
since The Democrats flipped the seat in Pennsylvania And successfully defending the other seats in play in November’s midterm elections, Democrats will retain control of the Senate, regardless of Tuesday’s outcome. But they would have more power if they carried the chamber 51-49 because they wouldn’t have to work out a power-sharing deal with Republicans. These will be the last elections in the 2022 midterm cycle.
Walker received a last-minute endorsement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump held a phone call for Walker over the weekend. Walker told CBS News’ Nicole Killion Tuesday morning that he believes they will win by 100,000 votes.
Warnock spent Tuesday with investigators in an effort to get out the vote. He told CBS News’ Nicole Killion that he feels early voting is good for his campaign and “now we’re going to win this election.”
According to exit polls on Election Day, Georgia voters were split on what qualities are most important in a candidate: 36% said it was most important for the candidate to share their values, while 32% said the candidate’s honesty and integrity were most important to them.
Ahead of the general election, Walker’s campaign was rocked in October accusations that he paid for at least one woman to have an abortion. He denied the allegations, and national Republicans stuck by him.
Georgia played a key role in the 2020 election as the race for the two Senate seats entered Special runoff election in January 2021, eventually flipping both seats from Republican to Democratic. Incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue led Jon Ossoff after Election Night with 49.7% of the vote, but ultimately failed in a runoff on January 5, 2021. In the race for the second seat, Warnock led incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler in a 21-person race on Election Day , and he won the special election to fill the position left when Senator Johnny Isakson stepped down.
Elizabeth Campbell and Aaron Navarro contributed to this report.
