Georgia runoff

Polls have closed in a hard-fought runoff election between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican former football star...

The truth is my opponent could still win this election," Warnock told a crowd in Norcross, Georgia, on Tuesday. It also would be another midterm defeat at the polls for a protege of Trump, who spurred Walker to run. Warnock is pastor of the historic Atlanta church where assassinated civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The contest went to a runoff after neither candidate secured 50 per cent of the vote on November 8. At least 1.9 million people cast their votes before Election Day, equal to 47 per cent of the Nov. The race is a last test of Donald Trump's clout with midterm voters as he seeks the Republican nomination to challenge President Joe Biden in 2024.

After a long campaign cycle that stretched into December with a runoff election, Georgia elected Sen. Raphael Warnock to a full term.

and on the trail often channeled his hero's emphasis on the overlap between activism and faith. Especially in the final weeks of the campaign, Warnock explicitly appealed to independents and Republican-leaning voters [new era](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/12/1122118393/georgia-abrams-warnock-rural-black-voters-elections-democrats-midterms) in the state's politics. Walker, who Trump urged to run, was the [only](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1137552158/the-path-looks-uncertain-for-democrats-after-losing-the-georgia-governorship-aga) Georgia Republican not to win outright in November. Across town, Walker snapped photos with fans tailgating outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, where his University of Georgia Bulldogs secured the SEC championship title. At campaign stops, supporters line up carrying hats, jerseys and footballs for the former football star to autograph. Multiple days broke records for daily, in-person voting, reflecting both enthusiasm and a Republican-backed election law that condensed the runoff window from nine weeks to four. "This is not about right and left," Warnock told voters before a rally with former President Barack Obama last week in Atlanta. The gap was most pronounced in Atlanta's northern suburbs, once Republican strongholds that have trended toward Democrats in recent years. He was also prone to gaffes and false claims, exaggerating his record in academics and business and displaying a loose grasp of policy. Raphael Warnock has won a full term in the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican football legend Herschel Walker in a campaign that tested Georgia's position as a purple state and spurred debates about race, celebrity and partisan politics.