Voters in Georgia chose Reverend Raphael Warnock to fill the last vacant seat in the Senate, giving Democrats greater clout in the upper house of Congress.
According to press forecasts in the United States, 53-year-old Warnock won re-election by defeating Republican Herschel Walker, a former American football star supported by Donald Trump.
Raphael Warnock received about 37,000 more votes than Herschel Walker in the first round on November 8. However, the Democrat failed to win the majority, requiring a second round, this time in a vote with no third candidate.
With a controversial profile, Herschel Walker was heavily criticized in the mid-term campaign after taking a strong stance against abortion, despite two women accusing him of financing their pregnancy interruptions.
Raphael Warnock, endorsed by former President Barack Obama and seeking re-election, is a minister at Martin Luther King Jr. and the first African American senator from Georgia.
This was the fourth campaign in two years for Raphael Warnock, who first ran against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in 2020 to complete the term of former Senator Johnny Isakson. That race went to a second round in January 2021, which the Democrat won.
With Raphael Warnock’s victory, the Democrats take 51 seats in the Senate, against 49 for the Republicans.
Senate control did not depend on this election, as the Democrats had already won a majority through the 50 seats they won in the midterm elections, joining Vice President Kamala Harris in the tiebreaker vote.
The election of Raphael Warnock also marked a setback for Donald Trump’s recently launched 2024 presidential campaign, as the former head of state openly expressed support for Herschel Walker.
This was the fifth time in four years that Georgian citizens went to the polls – four times for midterm elections and once for the presidential election. This is due to a quirk in state election law that requires winning candidates for state office in the general election not only to receive more votes than everyone else, but at least 50% of the votes cast.
Source: DN
