The race for U.S. Senate in Georgia is headed to a runoff after both Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker failed to capture 50 percent of the vote, Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday.
Warnock leads Walker 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent — or 35,000 votes — with 98 percent of the vote counted. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, notched 2.1 percent of the vote. State law requires a candidate to break the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.
The runoff election will be held on December 6.
Three key races in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona will now determine control of the upper chamber. If Republican Adam Laxalt holds on to his slight lead over incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Republican Blake Masters is unable to overcome incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly’s existing lead in Arizona, control of the upper chamber will come down to Georgia.
It would be the second time in two years that control of the Senate comes down to a Georgia runoff — in 2020, two runoff races in the Peach State gave Democrats control of the upper chamber.
Democrats appear to have taken three other key Senate races, in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Republicans have won Senate races in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Ohio, according to projections. Republicans held 49 Senate seats as of Wednesday afternoon, while Democrats held 48 seats.
The tight race in Georgia comes after Trump-backed Walker was hit with an “October surprise” when the Daily Beast broke the news that a woman, who was later reported to be the mother of one of Walker’s children, said Walker paid her to abort a child they’d conceived in 2009. The woman, who has not been named publicly, said Walker again pushed her to get an abortion in 2011 when she became pregnant. She refused and the pair broke up soon after, the New York Times reported.
For his part, Walker has denied the allegation, calling it a “flat-out lie.”
Warnock’s campaign was not without controversy either. The Washington Free Beacon reported last month that the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as pastor, threatened to evict low-income tenants from a building it owned during the pandemic for failing to pay small amounts of overdue rent.
Meanwhile in Georgia, Republican incumbent Governor Brian Kemp handily defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams, sailing to reelection. Some pundits had suggested Abrams’ poor performance threatened to drag Warnock down.