Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock
By A.R. Shaw
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated the Republican challenger Herschel Walker to maintain his seat in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Neither candidate received over 50 percent of the vote in early November causing a run-off election.
The New York Times reported that Warnock beat out Walker with 1,708,031 (50.6%) votes; Walker garnered 1,670,312 (49.4%) votes on Tuesday.
Now Democrats have the majority in the senate for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term with a 51-49 Senate majority, earning a seat from the current 50-50 split with John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania, the AP News reported. There still will be a divided government with Republicans having just barely switched House control.
Over the last four weeks, both candidates took political shots at each other to sway voters a second time around. Warnock received support from President Barack Obama while Sen. Lindsey Graham campaigned Walker.
But in the end, Georgia voters sided with Warnock who proved to be the more strongly-qualified candidate.
“After a hard-fought campaign — or should I say campaigns — it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock told supporters at his Election Night party at the Marriott in downtown Atlanta.
One day earlier, Warnock spoke at the Swag Shop, a barbershop owned by Killer Mike, and encouraged his supporters to make a difference by voting.
“Show up, it makes a huge difference,” Warnock said. “You’re looking at the difference that it makes. You think they gave us this office. We showed up. If there was any way they could have denied it, they would have tried it. So we need you to show up. One more time. When we show up, we win.”
By winning, the Democrats now have a clear advantage over the Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Walker conceded to Warnock shortly before midnight.
“After a hard-fought campaign — or, should I say, campaigns — it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock, 53, told supporters in the article. “I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children.”
Walker conceded after realizing the numbers are “not going to add up.”
“There’s no excuses in life, and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” he said in the AP News article.
Staff Writer Sherri Kolade contributed to this report.
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