Polls are now closed in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is defending his Senate seat against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a runoff election. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion joined John Dickerson on “Prime Time” from Atlanta to discuss the latest. “Reverend Warnock’s well-earned win is not just a victory for Georgia, but also for democracy – as the last brick in our firewall against extremist MAGA Republican policies that threaten the very essence of our democracy,” Schumer said.
Polls close in Georgia Senate runoff election
Democrats say, Walker’s defeat is a sign that Americans are rejecting Trumpism as the former president looks to regain the presidency. Fulks said one of the biggest challenges was to motivate voters to turn out on an unusual Dec. 6 Election Day. Mr. Biden did not travel to Georgia to campaign ahead of the runoff, although former President Barack Obama campaigned with Warnock over the weekend. The polls have closed across the Peach State, although comprehensive results won’t be available immediately.
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“Tonight, we celebrate – for my friend Raphael, for his beloved state of Georgia, for a Democratic Senate, and most of all, for our country. Tomorrow, we will roll up our sleeves and get back to work.” Walker picked up a last-minute endorsement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump held a telerally for Walker over the weekend. Walker told CBS News’ Nikole Killion on Tuesday morning that he believed they would win by 100,000 votes. Voting numbers in Georgia on Tuesday alone reached 1.4 million, election official Gabriel Sterling said after polls closed, adding there had been “record turnout across the board”.
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“It’s hard because I’m angry right now. But you know, I need some time to breathe, I know, I’ll say that,” he said. “And honestly, the thing that I want most out of him is, at the end of the day, gosh, time flies, like I’m an adult. So I’m grown. I’m making money … Go be the best dad.” Matthew Pinder, 24, said he voted for Warnock because he’s “reasonable” and “the other candidate isn’t.” Duane Cochenour, a 61-year-old attorney, cast a vote in his midtown Atlanta precinct for Walker. The outcome, along with last month’s defeat of former Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, also showed the limits of celebrity. Walker, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, was a star running back for the University of Georgia and the NFL, and was a member of the U.S.
Walker acknowledged defeat at his election night party on Tuesday, admitting in a speech to supporters that media outlets had projected he lost to his Democratic opponent. Walker has warned Republicans that they need to turn out to stop national Democrats from gaining more power. “If you don’t vote, you’re going to get more of Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday night. The runoff election was triggered by state law because neither candidate won an outright majority in the November election. In an interview with NBC News, Warnock campaign manager Quentin Fulks credited the victory in part to driving the contrast between candidates — and continuing to appeal to independent and Republican-leaning voters who had reservations about Walker.
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The party underperformed expectations last month by winning only a slender majority in the US House of Representatives, Congress’ lower chamber. “Reverend Warnock’s well-earned win is not just a victory for Georgia, but also for democracy — as the last brick in our firewall against extremist MAGA Republican policies that threaten the very essence of our democracy,” the statement continued. While the race didn’t determine control of the Senate, it did increase Democrats’ power in the chamber — where Vice President Kamala Harris currently has to break ties — rather than see the Republicans win a 50th seat and create procedural obstacles. Warnock’s victory will give Democrats an outright majority in the Senate after two years under a divide, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes.
Later, during an audio-only event on Twitter when he took questions about his thoughts of his father and the election, Christian Walker told ABC News it had been a while since they spoke but he didn’t rule out a reconciliation at some point. The Trump-backed Walker, who has enjoyed an accomplished football and business career and is a father and two-time husband, said his run for the Senate was the “best thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life.” “But one of the things I said … when they called the race as they didn’t know much, but one of the things I want to tell all you is you never stopped dreaming,” he said.
We look at the votes that have been reported so far and adjust our estimate based on what we expect from the votes that remain. Democrats’ 51st vote means they can rip up the power-sharing arrangement they struck with Senate Republicans and secure a clear majority of votes on committees. They’ll also have one vote to spare on matters like confirming executive branch nominees and judges. Republicans typically wait to vote on Election Day, but their voters did not turn out on a damp and drizzly Tuesday in the numbers that Walker needed to overcome the advantage Warnock had banked during the early vote window. Senate Republicans had been hoping to get a headstart on the 2024 election, when the electoral map heavily favors the GOP. But Walker was dogged by scandals, a more than 2-to-1 spending disadvantage and lack of confidence in both the candidate and his campaign from some GOP officials.
The map below shows how votes cast in this race compare with votes cast in the 2020 presidential election in the same area. Since Democrats flipped the seat in Pennsylvania and successfully defended the other seats in play in the November midterm elections, Democrats were guaranteed control of the Senate, regardless of the outcome on Tuesday. But they will have more power controlling the chamber since they will not have to work out a power-sharing agreement with Republicans. However, former President Trump has been saying the opposite — when he announced his third bid for the presidency, he called for “paper ballots, same-day voting, voter ID,” and, he added, “we want all votes counted by election night.”
- Voting numbers in Georgia on Tuesday alone reached 1.4 million, election official Gabriel Sterling said after polls closed, adding there had been “record turnout across the board”.
- Similarly, it would ease Biden’s ability to rapidly appoint federal judges as he attempts to match the more than two hundred justices placed on the bench by Donald Trump.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who will have one more vote in his chamber come Januar, said in a statement that Warnock’s victory “shows once again that Democrats are in sync with America and MAGA Republicans are not.”
Obama stumped hard for Warnock in Georgia before the general election and again before the runoff, holding spirited rallies. “What we do need is, our voters need to vote early,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said on Fox News earlier Tuesday. “I have said this over and over again. There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early,’ and we have to stop that.” Tuesday night’s victory means that although most legislation will still need Republican support, it will be slightly easier for Mr Biden to appoint judges and members of his administration. Mr Walker’s Senate bid was the last Republican opportunity to flip a Senate seat after Trump-backed candidates lost in New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
(Walker has not denied the allegations of spousal abuse, but he says that he did not fund abortions.) In the final week of the campaign, Walker was struggling to explain why he had appeared to admit that he lives in Texas rather than in Georgia. On Tuesday, voters in Georgia will determine the winner of the only undecided seat in the U.S. Senate, in a runoff between the Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock, and the Republican challenger, Herschel Walker.
Although control of the chamber is not at stake—Democrats won fifty seats in the general election, last month—the outcome remains significant, both for the balance of power in Washington and for its potential impact on the 2024 Presidential race. ATLANTA — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican football star Herschel Walker on Tuesday in Georgia’s Senate runoff election, NBC News projects, handing President Joe Biden and his party a key win. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican football star Herschel Walker on Tuesday in Georgia’s Senate runoff election, handing President Joe Biden and his party a key win. The maps below show how votes cast in this race compare with votes cast in the November general election in the same area.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who has been campaigning for Warnock, told CBS News’ Nikole Killion on Tuesday that despite that the balance of power is already set, the runoff election is still important. The lines below show how the reported margin (dashed line) compares with our estimated final margin (solid line surrounded by an estimate of uncertainty). As a rule, when our estimated margin is steady in the presence of new vote data, our forecast is more trustworthy.
The win cements Biden’s unexpected midterm success, allowing his party to grow the majority in the Senate. When asked if President Joe Biden would be doing any last-minute outreach in Georgia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated Tuesday that Mr. Biden had phonebanked for Warnock over the weekend. Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden set the “messaging” for Democrats in the midterm elections.
Only counties that have reported almost all of their votes are shown, and estimates of the final turnout in each county are compared with turnout from the general election. The expected vote is the total number of votes that are expected in a given race once all votes are counted. This number is an estimate and is based on several different factors, including information on the number of votes cast early as well as information provided to our vote reporters on Election Day from county election officials.
“Putting aside the national balance of power, national politics, it matters deeply to me and to every Georgian who represents us for the next years in the U.S. Senate,” Ossoff said. “The contrast between Sen. Warnock and his opponent in character, in competence, in integrity is as vast as I’ve ever seen.” This rating can change throughout the night as more precincts report their vote totals. Warnock’s projected win strengthens Democrats’ leverage in the Senate, allowing them to more easily confirm the president’s nominees and making it less likely they’ll often need Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. In the general election, Warnock topped Walker by over 37,000 votes, but with 49.4% of the vote, Warnock failed to cross the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a runoff. Walker has leaned into his status as one of the University of Georgia’s most revered players to deflect one controversy after another, including allegations of domestic abuse and claims that he paid for ex-girlfriends’ abortions despite his anti-abortion stance as a candidate.
The outcome is also another blow to Donald Trump, who backed Walker, making him the final in a series of candidates the former president supported this year who failed to win competitive races. Ahead of the general election, Walker’s campaign was rocked in October by allegations that he paid for at least one woman to have an abortion. Early voting for the runoff has been highest in several Democratic leaning counties around Atlanta, such as Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb County. Some GOP leaders are looking ahead to coming elections with the understanding that they must increase their own early voting numbers to be competitive. With 99% of the estimated vote counted, he secured 50.8% to Mr Walker’s 49.2%, according to Edison Research.
President Biden offered an optimistic projection to reporters Tuesday night upon his return from a day trip to Phoenix. CBS News projects Warnock will beat Walker and retain his seat in the Senate, securing Democrats 51 seats in the Senate. In brief remarks to his supporters, Walker acknowledged after the race was called for Warnock that the numbers don’t add up for him. Warnock’s crowd was enthusiastic as the senator and senator-elect expressed his gratitude. “There are those who will look at the outcome and say that there’s no voter suppression in Georgia,” Warnock said. If Democrats had lost Georgia, the party’s control of a Senate would have depended on US Vice-President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.