Raphael Warnock beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate race – a month after the midterm elections. 

The Democratic win cements the party’s control over the US Senate, now holding the upper chamber by 51-49. 

The midterm elections were a bit of a flop for the Republican party, having underperformed last month and only winning a slim majority in the US House of Representatives – the lower chamber of Congress. 

It had been expected that they win both houses by a large margin.

Herschel Walker loses Georgia runoff

Herschel Walker is a political newcomer, having had a career in American football. He was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican White House nomination again in 2024. 

He did not explicitly concede when he addressed his supporters in Atlanta. But said: “There are no excuses in life, and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.”

US midterms 2022

The Georgia contest had to be settled with a run-of because no candidate passed the 50% threshold in November, though Mr Warnock had let Mr Walker by 37,000 votes cast. 

Mr Warnock told his victory party in Atlanta: “It is my honour to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: the people have spoken!”

In January 2021, he became the first black senator in the Deep South state. 

Mr Warnock’s projected win came by a narrow margin. With 99% of the estimated vote counted, he secured 50.8% to Mr Walker’s 49.2%, according to Edison Research.