Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 8, 2022 / 23:30 pm
The hard-fought Georgia Senate race between Republican Herschel Walker and the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, could be headed for a runoff election on Dec. 6 as neither candidate has received more than 50% of the votes required by law to secure a victory.
In a race in which the candidates spent more than $241 million, Herschel, a former All-Pro NFL running back, and Warnock, an Atlanta pastor, were locked in a virtual dead heat into the wee hours of election night. With 95% of the vote counted, Warnock had captured 49.4% of the vote, Walker had 48.5%, while the Libertarian candidate, Chase Oliver, had 2.1%.
A runoff would pit the top two candidates against each other. Last week, FiveThirtyEight, the opinion poll analysis website, predicted that if the race were to go to a runoff, Walker would have about a 68% chance of winning.
The race was among the most closely watched in the nation, as its outcome was expected to determine which party would control the U.S. Senate. Indeed, on election night, it became clear that for Republicans to take back control of the Senate, they would have to win two out of the three seats in the states of Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.