Georgia election official says ‘safe to say’ Senate race will go to run-off

The Georgian COO of the Secretary of State’s office, Gabriel Sterling, said it is “safe” to assume the hotly contested Senate race between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is moving to a runoff.

“While county officials are still doing the detailed work of counting the votes, we think it’s safe to say there will be a US Senate runoff election here in Georgia, scheduled for December 6,” Sterling wrote on Twitter. .

He added a GIF of two men eating at Buffalo Wild Wings watching football with the caption “the only thing that can make this better is overtime.”

At 10:30 a.m., 98 percent of the vote has been counted and Warnock is in the lead with 30,000 votes – 1,937,036 against Walker’s 1,901,724.

If neither candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold, the race moves to a second round on Dec. 6, under Georgia’s electoral law. A third-party libertarian is likely to prevent both candidates from gaining a majority.

The path is reminiscent of 2020 for Warnock, when he was forced into a runoff with then-incumbent GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler and came out on top.

With four swing races left and one safe Republican race yet to be called, the fate of the top chamber is on the line — and could come down to the second round in Georgia. That could spell another excruciating month of bitter campaigning between the two candidates – both of whom have questionable past accusations made public during the race.

Control of the House of Representatives was also at stake in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after the Democrats performed better than expected. More than 60 House races have not yet been declared, Republicans are at 199-174.

Both candidates expressed confidence that they would emerge victorious as they addressed supporters early Wednesday morning.

“I’m just Ricky Bobby. I didn’t come to lose,” Walker told a crowd, comparing himself to the fictional Nascar driver in the hit comedy Talladega Nights.

“We’re not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there’s still a bit of work to do, but here’s what we do know – we know that when they finish counting the votes from today’s election, we’ll will receive more votes than my opponent,” Warnock said in an early morning speech just before 2 a.m

The hard-fought race became one of the most expensive of this cycle, drawing a quarter of a billion dollars in campaign finance to saturate the airwaves in the lead up to Election Day.

Meanwhile, Walker’s fellow Republican, Governor Brian Kemp, beat his opponent handily, as did Georgia Sec. by State Brad Raffensperger, suggesting Georgia had an unusual number of ticket splitters.

Many are now wondering whether Trump will be blamed if Republicans fail to take the Senate seat. Trump shot Walker to the front of the primaries by backing him, even as he attacked Kemp and Raffensperger for failing to abide by his claims of voter fraud.

Sterling rejoiced at his boss’s win on Twitter with a Raffensperger meme saying, “The truth matters.”

Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and Heisman winner, was initially one of the political newcomers Republicans balk at, given the baggage he carries, including allegations that he would kill his ex-wife.

In the closing days of the campaign, two women came forward and said Walker pressured them to have abortions and paid for them. Walker denied the claims, though he said the domestic violence allegations came from a time when he suffered from a mental illness from which he has since recovered.

Walker’s campaign hit Warnock, a pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, over allegations by his ex-wife that he ran his car over her foot during an altercation involving police.