Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock was reelected after a closely watched runoff election on Tuesday (Picture: John Arthur Brown/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Senator Raphael Warnock has won reelection in Georgia against his Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
The incumbent Democratic Senator Warnock came out ahead of Walker in last month’s general election by about 37,000 votes, but fell just short of the 50% threshold required for victory. The outcome forced a runoff election held on Tuesday.
By Tuesday night, it was clear Warnock would come out ahead again and increase his lead over his opponent. The Democrat received about 1,817,000 votes – about 51.4% of all votes cast.
‘Wow!’ Warnock exclaimed before he announced his victory to a raucous crowd of supporters chanting ‘six more years!’
‘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 said.
‘I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children. Voting is faith put into action. And Georgia, you have been praying with your lips and your legs, with your hands and your feet, your heads and your hearts.’
President Joe Biden called the re-elected senator and congratulated him on his victory. ‘Tonight Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected Ultra MAGAism, and most importantly: sent a good man back to the Senate,’ he said on Twitter.
Raphael Warnock holds his two children Chloe (left) and Caleb (right) after he was reelected to the Senate in Atlanta, Georgia (Picture: EPA)
The Democrats now control the Senate by 51-49 seats, increasing their majority by one seat after the 2022 campaign season.
Warnock was first elected to the Senate after a special election in November 2020 to replace retiring Senator Johnny Isakson. In January 2021, he was sworn into office to become Georgia’s first black senator in history.
The victory was seen as a watershed moment for a state that has become an important battleground between the two parties. Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff became the first members of their party to represent the state in the Senate since Zell Miller retired in January 2005.
Former football player and Senate candidate Herschel Walker poses with former President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump (Picture: Getty Images)
Warnock is also the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the same pulpit where Martin Luther King Jr once preached from.
He ran against retired NFL star Herschel Walker, a political novice and longtime friend of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him early in the campaign season.
Walker has also been a popular local celebrity in his home state of Georgia, where he won a Heisman Trophy with the University of Georgia football team in 1982. He later went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL.
Herschel Walker addresses crowds after the November election forced a runoff with incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock (Picture: Robin Rayne/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
‘The numbers look like they’re not going to add up,’ Walker told a crowd of supporters during a concession speech. ‘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.
Walker’s campaign was marred by controversies, including allegations that he forced women to get abortions despite advocating for a national ban on the procedure.
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The Democrats now control the Senate by 51-49 seats, increasing their majority by one seat after the 2022 campaign season.
