Polls close, awaiting Georgia Senate election results
Georgia voters are once again left with the final say in how Congress will look as the nation watches the Senate runoff race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
Democrats have already secured the upper chamber’s majority with victories in other states, but that doesn’t mean nothing is at stake Tuesday.
For starters, Georgia’s special election will determine whether the chamber remains evenly split at 50-50, which proved to be a difficult tightrope for President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
If Warnock wins, the 51-seat majority gives Senate Democrats control of committees and frees them from leaning on Vice President Kamala Harris to cast tie-breaking votes.
Georgia Senate runoff: Football icon Herschel Walker, Sen. Raphael Warnock clash in runoff election
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But if Walker prevails that keeps the pressure on Democrats to remain united.
It also gives their caucuses moderate to conservative-leaning senators more power in terms of close judicial nominations or other important administrative confirmations.
Here’s the latest:
Country music star sets tone at Walker party
As Georgia-born country music artist Andy Velo, the opening musical act of the Walker watch party, was playing “Friends in Low Places” around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday night, the crowd erupted in applause.
But it wasn’t just for Velo. The crowd was watching the results, displayed on a giant screen playing Fox News behind Velo. Walker, who had been trailing Warnock from the start of the night, finally caught up in the close race.
“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s your hard work right there,” Velo said, as he began playing an original song.
The timbre of the room changed entirely. What before was a fairly reserved party became energized, as Walker supporters cheered together and hugged each other.
At that point, about 1.8 million ballots of 3.3 million total had been counted.
— Will Peebles
Traveling to campaign
Michael A. Guynn came a long way for Warnock’s election night gathering – all the way from Los Angeles.
“I’ve been out here since Sunday,” he said, campaigning in Gwinnett County for Warnock. “We’ve been going strong for three days.”
Guynn said he also helped campaign for Stacey Abrams in 2018. He heads back to California Wednesday, but wanted to make it out to the election night gathering first.
– Abraham Kenmore
No call yet in Georgia Senate runoff
Results from the Senate runoff race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker remain uncalled, an hour and a half after polls closed in Georgia at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Warnock is currently leading Walker in voting, 52.2% — 47.8%, with nearly 50% of ballots counted at 8:23 p.m. ET.
Dave Wasserman, editor at the Cook Political Report, said the race will come down to a close margin. “At this point, turnout in metro Atlanta would need to be unusually rough for Warnock (D) to lose,” Wasserman tweeted Tuesday night.
— Mabinty Quarshie
No matter who wins, history will be made
Whoever voters choose Tuesday, Georgia is set to elect its first Black senator to a full six-year term.
Warnock is already in the Peach State’s history books as the state’s first Black senator after beating Republican Kelly Loeffler in the 2021 runoff.
That made the Atlanta minister—who is pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presided—just the 11th Black senator in U.S. history, but that was to finish out the term of Sen. Johnny Isakson, who resigned in 2019.
If Walker wins, the former NFL running back would be the 12th Black senator in U.S. history.
— Phillip M. Bailey
Georgia polls close
It’s official: The Georgia Senate runoff is over, with polls closing at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Now the political world waits to evaluate the results of the high-profile race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
If one of the candidates breaks away, the race could be called as early as 10 or 11 p.m.; a tight race, and we could be waiting until after midnight.
– David Jackson
Warnock campaign ‘feeling really good’ ahead of polls closing
Warnock’s campaign is confident as the polls are about to close, according to Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson, founder and CEO of Paramount Consulting Group. Speaking at the Warnock election night gathering, Johnson said that key precincts are trending the right way for the senator.
“Feeling really good about the turnout because our campaign has spent an enormous amount of time talking to all voters across the state of Georgia,” he said. “The early vote numbers were really good, and we’re proud of the Georgia voters that decided to go out and vote early.”
As for what is bringing voters back to the polls after the primary and general election earlier this year, Johnson said it is nothing less than democracy.
“We have a group of people on the Republican side who are focused on trying to move us backwards as a country,” he said. “And people in Georgia, they realize how important it is we send Sen. Warnock back to Washington.”
– Abraham Kenmore
Runoff turnout exhausts paper supply
As Georgia headed into its final hour of the run-off election Tuesday, precinct 4-08 at Wilmington Island Presbyterian Church saw more than 1,100 ballots cast, according to poll manager Ashley Reed.
During the primaries on Nov. 8, the same precinct saw 862 voters the entire day.
“I’ve never had turnout like this for a runoff,” the 27-year veteran of elections work said. “We’re running out of paper.”
Reed added that more paper was on its way, and the precinct experienced a few machine hiccups during the day, but nothing that kept people from voting.
The ballot scanner stopped working, and by the time they’d received a new one, Reed said she had to scan a backlog of 200 ballots into the machine. “But everybody got counted,” she said.
Reed said the shorter time for early voting is what drove people out to vote on Election Day this week, along with the importance of the outcome— which would either clinch already assured Democratic control of the Senate, or narrow the already thin margin of political control should the Republicans succeed.
“The entire country hinges on this one,” she said of the election.
— Zoe Nicholson
Warnock watch event prepped and ready
Supporters of Sen. Warnock are gathering at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, less than a mile from where Walker is gathering supporters.
A TV behind the Warnock campaign podium is already playing CNN coverage of the election, an hour before polls close. Dozens of journalists from local and national outlets are setting up, but doors will not open for supporters until 6:30 p.m.
USA Today’s Georgia reporters are on the scene and will be providing regular updates and photos throughout the night.
— Abraham Kenmore
Walker supporters arrive at Election Night watch party
The College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta was bustling with journalists Tuesday around 5:30 p.m., as they took their places for Herschel Walker’s watch party.
The former UGA standout’s football legacy is enshrined there. Walker was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
Walker’s watch party is officially set to begin at 7 p.m., and campaign staffers said other guests of Walker should start to arrive around then.
USA TODAY Network Georgia reporters will be providing updates from both Walker’s watch party and Incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock’s watch party throughout the night.
— Will Peebles
For progressives, Georgia could be a Manchin-Sinema ‘insurance policy’
Georgia’s runoff won’t change which party controls the Senate, but progressive activists have one big reason for wanting Democrats to get a 51-seat majority on Tuesday.
Those at the grassroots level told USA TODAY that taking Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—two more conservative-leaning members of the caucus—down a notch is a major motivation.
“It does give you a little bit of insurance policy,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, an Atlanta-based voting rights group, said.
“For Georgia voters, for some Black Georgia voters in particular, they’re very much aware of that,” he added. “They view getting this seat to getting closer to making those two less relevant.”
— Phillip M. Bailey
What is a runoff election?:Georgians head to the polls for Warnock v. Walker round two.
Early voting updates
Final data from election night won’t be available for a while, but Georgia has been updating the early voting data in real time.
Before election day, Georgia had accepted about 175,000 absentee ballots and 1.7 million people had voted early in person – a total of 1.89 million ballots, or 27% of registered voters.
White voters had the highest number of…
Read More: Polls close, awaiting Georgia Senate election results