Raphael Warnock Wins Reelection in Georgia’s Special Election
The midterm elections finally came to a close on Tuesday, December 6th, as Raphael Warnock held on to his seat in a contentious runoff election against Hershel Walker. On election night in November, neither candidate was able to reach the needed 50% mark, causing the race to go to a runoff. This result should come as no surprise after Democrats landed some unexpected victories to hold on to the Senate in November, most notably in Pennsylvania. While many could see this result coming, and with Democrats already in control of the Senate, it still would have been a huge pickup for Republicans to flip a seat in the Senate. Regardless, as it now stands, Democrats control 51 seats in the Senate meaning they actually picked up an additional seat from where they were before.
Raphael Warnock seemed to have a slight edge in the polls heading into November. Warnock, the former pastor, first served in public office starting in early 2021, when he defeated Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia senatorial special election. In doing so, Warnock became the first African American to be elected Senator in the state of Georgia.
However, on election night, Georgia Republican governor Brian Kemp won a commanding victory, causing many to doubt if Warnock could not only win the vote, but also get enough votes to avoid a runoff. His opponent was former Georgia football star and Heisman trophy winner Hershel Walker, who was making his debut in politics. Walker has also battled against claims of domestic abuse and paying for ex-girlfriend’s abortion, even though as a candidate he has been against abortion.
The polls on election night showed Raphael Warnock winning 49.4% of the vote, putting him 37,000 votes ahead of Herschel Walker’s 48.5%. Even so, a lot can change in one month and Democrats were willing to spend enough to make sure things didn’t change in the other direction.
Like most Democrats in recent years, Warnock was able to pull in huge amounts of money for campaigning that was crucial coming down the stretch to the runoff election. According to Fox News, “And the senator and allied Democratic groups outspent Walker and aligned GOP groups by a roughly two-to-one margin to run ads during the month-long runoff showdown.” As of November 16, Warnock had raised $150 million to Walker’s $58 million. Groups poured out a colossal amount of money as the election altogether totaled over $400 million in total spending, with the groups contributing the most to Warnock’s campaign being Alphabet (holder of Google), Microsoft, and Emory University, according to News Nation.
This election is also crucial on a much bigger level because it gives Democrats some leeway in the Senate. The lead that Democrats held coming into the midterms was deceptive, due to the fact that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Sinema of Arizona had on occasion flipped, most notably on Joe Biden’s expensive Build Back Better Plan. While Biden now has more support coming from the Senate, he will be challenged by the fact that the House is now out of his control, with Republicans holding what will likely be a nine seat advantage on the other side of Congress.
