Senate race heads to runoff in Georgia

With Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock in a dead heat for the U.S. Senate seat, Georgia has announced a runoff election. Preliminary results showed Walker gained 48.5 percent of the vote and Warnock took 49.4 percent, while Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver secured 2.1 percent, according to The Associated Press. Results were still pending in Arizona and Nevada. The three states will decide which party has control of the Senate.

Who are Walker and Warnock? Walker retired from football as a Pro Bowl running back in 1997 and then became a successful businessman. He is pro-life and supports a bill by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would protect babies from abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. Scandals have followed him based on allegations by women claiming to be former girlfriends of his, but Walker has dismissed and denied their claims. Warnock became Georgia’s first black senator in 2021. While in office, he worked to improve the highways in Georgia and participated in bipartisan efforts to protect the state’s agriculture. He is a pastor and often held campaign efforts in churches and other similar venues. Warnock supports abortion as a “necessary medical service.”

Dig deeper: Track the results of the election on WORLD’s 2022 Election Center.