Warnock/Walker Headed to December Runoff
(RightWing.org) – After months of political wrangling, voters headed to the polling stations to vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 8. Election officials announced the results of a majority of the elections within hours of the polls’ closures. However, on Wednesday, Georgia announced that Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker were headed to a December runoff.
Decision Desk HQ projects Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R) advance to a runoff for U.S. Senate in Georgia.#DecisionMade: 11:42am EST
Follow more results here: https://t.co/AOgwtp48Fd pic.twitter.com/FyhS2wBfNQ
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022
According to Georgia election laws, a candidate must win at least 50% of the ballots counted to claim a victory. Decision Desk HQ reported that Warnock received 49.42% of the votes. Walker won 48.52%, and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver sliced off 2.07% of the 3,929,306 votes cast on Tuesday. As a result, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff election on December 6.
Runoffs appear to have become the norm in Georgia in recent elections. For example, Warnock and then-incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (D-GA) squared off in a heated rematch in January 2021. Warnock’s victory in the race handed Democrats a tie in the Senate, meaning Vice President Kamala Harris became the tiebreaker, effectively giving Dems control.
Will the Georgia runoff decide the fate of the Senate again this year? While three other states are too close to call at press time, the result of the Walker-Warnock race is sure to have national repercussions.
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