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Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday.
by Linda Erbele
White County News
and
by Rebecca Grapevine
Capitol Beat News Service
Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday in a closely fought race for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, giving Democrats a slim two-seat majority in the upper house in Washington.
Warnock was leading Walker 51.1% to 48.8% as of 11:50 p.m. Tuesday night, with 98% of precincts reporting. The Warnock victory in the final contest of the 2022 election cycle gave Democrats 51 seats in the Senate to 49 for Republicans.
White County voters voted for Walker by 83 percent in the Dec. 6 runoff. Walker’s total votes numbered 9,414 in unofficial tabulations reported to the Secretary of State, as compared to 1,893 for Warnock.
“It went smooth,” said elections supervisor Jody Davis. “The election turnout was lower than expected.”
The secretary of state’s office reported a 53 percent turnout for this runoff, down from the Nov. 8 general election, which was 60.87 percent.
“But advanced voting,” Davis added, “that part was phenomenal. We had 1,000 a day.”
Total early voting, even with the compressed time table of just five days, came to 5,031 in White County. Election Day votes totaled 5,662, so just under 50 percent of those who voted took advantage of early voting. Absentee votes received were 614.
Davis said the post office delivered three ballots late Tuesday. Those three will be adjudicated later this week.
The secretary of state’s office reports that White County has 21,116 voters, 148 more than it did for the Nov. 8 general election.
Though Warnock won around 38,000 more votes than Walker in the November general election, neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote required by Georgia law to prevent a runoff, pushing the nationally watched race to a December rematch.
“I will walk with you even as I work for you,” Warnock vowed, promising to represent all Georgians, not just those who voted for him. “I will always be a voice for Georgia. All of Georgia.”
Walker conceded the race on Tuesday night.
“I’m not gonna make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” Walker told his supporters.
In the 2020 general election, White County had 20,622 voters, and turnout was 72.24 percent. Presidential elections typically draw more voters than any other elections. By January 2021, the secretary of state’s office reports that there were 18,589 registered voters. Turnout for that runoff, in which Jon Ossoff defeated David Perdue and Warnock defeated Kelly Loeffler was 71.60 percent.