Raphael Warnock Wins Georgia’s U.S. Senate Race. Here Are Key Takeaways

U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock has held onto his seat, securing a victory in Georgia’s closely-watched Senate race and defeating Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Warnock started with a double digit lead thanks to early voting numbers, but it chipped away as results poured in, with both men trading leads all night in the extremely close race.

When the vote was called, Warnock received about 1,708,000 votes to Walker’s 1,670,000, with over 95% of precincts reporting, the N.Y. Times reported.

It was déjà vu for Georgians, as they headed to the polls for the second time in less than a month for the Tuesday Senate runoff election, which was “triggered after neither candidate passed the required 50% threshold in the November midterms.” Some pundits are even going so far as to claim Georgia is the next swing state.

This election marks the first time ever that the state of Georgia will have a full-term Black representative in the Senate; however, in an aberration from Issa Rae’s oft-quoted Emmy quote, in this election, we’re not rooting for everybody Black.

With Warnock holding on to his Senate seat, Democrats have a 51-49 majority and, importantly for the them, control over all of the Senate committees.

Warnock, a senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church in Atlanta, is the Democratic incumbent candidate who, in unusual circumstances, was last elected in January of 2021 in a special runoff election. He had essentially been on a non-stop campaign cycle since he was elected.

Walker, a former University of Georgia and NFL player, had a campaign plagued with scandals, including several domestic abuse allegations and claims that he paid for abortions for his ex-girlfriends (plural), although Walker has denied these claims and maintained his anti-abortion stance. Even worse, these rumors had been circulating on top of a myriad of rather unusual campaign stump speeches, wherein at some points Walker has engaged in long tangents, speaking about vampires and werewolves.

Here are some key takeaways from tonight’s embarrassingly close election.

01

Walker’s ascent is a low point in modern U.S. politics

Given the many political controversies our nation has witnessed in the past several years, the fact that Walker even made it this far to a runoff election for a seat in the United States Senate indicates, as The Atlantic so aptly writes that, “[t]oo many of us have simply gotten used to the corrosion of our public life…Win or lose…The Republicans have acclimated the American public to ghastly behavior from elected officials and candidates for high office. The result is lasting damage to our political system no matter what happens in Georgia or in the 2024 races…in a better time in our politics, these candidates would not have survived even a moment of public scrutiny or weathered their first scandal or stumble.”

02

Georgia voters were energized, despite having to turn out for two general election days

Georgians didn’t appear to show any signs of voter fatigue—about 300,000 Georgians voted early each day this week “setting records for the largest single-day early voting turnout in state history.” This equated to roughly 1.8 million votes in just one week, and this all went down before early voting ended last Friday.

03

We’re spending a TON of money on elections

According to OpenSecrets, this race was the most expensive race during this midterm season. Super PACs spent “nearly $16 million more on Warnock than his Republican challenger Herschel Walker ahead of the runoff election, spending more than $40 million on expenses like advertisements supporting Warnock or opposing Walker. Other PACs spent more than $24 million supporting Walker or opposing Warnock, according to filings reported to the Federal Elections Commission.” Astonishingly enough, these amounts pale in comparison to the overall amount of political funds spent in the Peach State since 2020, where in only four races, an astounding $1.4 billion has been expended.

04

This was a Trump test…and he’s not doing too well

This race was considered a critical indicator and temperature check of people’s attitudes toward former President Trump, who announced his third presidential campaign a mere three weeks ago. Today’s election represented Trump’s last chance in 2022 “to claim victory in a battleground for one of his closest political acolytes.” This occurs as some Republicans have begun to distance themselves from Trump—as Paul Ryan told SiriusXM, “It’s crystal, crystal, crystal clear. We lose with Trump if we stick with Trump. If we dump Trump, we start winning.”