Georgia Senate race will go to a runoff between Warnock and Walker

With 98 percent of votes counted around 3 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Warnock had 49.4 percent of the vote, while Walker had 48.5 percent.

“There is one race in our state that is going to be moving to the December 6th runoff,” Raffensperger told reporters. “That is the race for the United States Senate between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.”

Georgia’s Senate race is heading to a runoff. Here’s how it will work.

Raffensperger — who was reelected Tuesday night — said his office has already begun working to start creating the ballots for the counties preparing for the runoff. Voters, he said, can request absentee ballots starting Wednesday and until Nov. 28. Early voting must begin no later than Nov. 28 in all counties, he said.

“We do ask the voters to come out and vote one last time,” Raffensperger said. “We have no control over how many campaign ads our voters are going to see over the next 30 days, but we’ll make sure that we have honest and fair elections.”

Georgia is one of two states — along with Louisiana — in which runoffs are required during general elections when no candidate secures more than half the votes. In most other states, a candidate wins a general election if they secure the most votes — known as a plurality.

At 2 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Warnock prepared his supporters in Atlanta for a possible runoff.

“I understand that at this late hour you may be a little tired, I may be a little tired for now,” Warnock said. “But whether it’s later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia.

“I look forward to continuing on that journey together over the next six years,” he added.

Walker, meanwhile, gave brief remarks during his election watch party Tuesday night.

“I’m telling you right now,” he said. “I don’t come to lose. And I told you, he’s going to be tough to beat.”

Warnock and Walker have been locked in a hotly contested race critical to determining which party will control the Senate.

The Democratic incumbent is running for his first full term in office after winning a special election for his seat in 2021 that flipped the Senate to Democratic control. That year, the state’s two Senate races went to runoff elections, with Democrats picking up both seats — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) was elected to a full, six-year term.

That dramatic runoff election saw both parties going all-in on investments, ads and appearances. In a move that was detrimental to Republicans, however, Donald Trump leveled attacks on Republican officials in the state as he spread false allegations that the 2020 elections in Georgia were rigged.

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Ultimately, Warnock’s win represented a historic upset in a state once seen as a longtime Republican bastion — which President Biden won by two-tenths of a point in 2020. Warnock then became the first Black Democratic senator from a formerly Confederate state.

Walker, meanwhile, is a political newcomer and former professional football player who was handpicked by the former president and who ran a staunchly conservative campaign that was, ultimately, mired in scandal after several women accused him of pressuring them to have an abortion, then paying for the procedures. The Republican, who ran on an antiabortion platform and on direct appeals to the party’s evangelical base, has denied that he’s ever paid for an abortion.

While Republicans at first were skeptical of Walker’s campaign, GOP leaders — including Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) — flocked to Georgia to campaign for him.

Another month of campaigning means Democrats and Republicans are likely to double down on their operations in the Peach State. The race is already the second most-expensive this campaign cycle, with supporters for both candidates spending a combined $271.5 million, according to OpenSecrets.

Still, the level of investment will also depend on the result of two other Senate elections still pending as of Wednesday evening. If Democrats hold on to their seats in Arizona and Nevada, the Senate will remain under a 50-50 split, with Democrats having a razor-thin majority thanks to the vote of Vice President Harris.

As of 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Democrats were favored to win both those Senate seats.

Per Georgia’s rules, all registered voters in the state can cast their ballot in a runoff election; to be eligible to vote in this year’s runoff, they must have registered to vote by Nov. 7.