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As the sun began to set Election Night, with races slowly unfolding across the country, it became increasingly clear that U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) would be pulled into a runoff. The outcome had as much to do with who he was running against—former star running back Herschel Walker—as who he was running with. Even though Walker had enough baggage to fill a Delta carousel, his support among evangelicals never wavered. He might have won it outright if Warnock hadn’t peeled off swing voters. In fact, the pastor won every precinct in DeKalb County, the first time for any candidate in recent memory, including its northerly GOP enclaves.
But, split ticket voting cut both ways. And, unfortunately for the rest of the Democrats on the ballot, Warnock had no coattails.
It is telling that Warnock outpolled Stacey Abrams, a former state house minority leader, by about 3 percentage points. On the issues, there is no daylight between them. As legislators, and even as die-hard progressives, they both have a track record at working hard to reach across the aisle. They share a force of character, unwavering moral compass, intellectual depth and dexterity, and an abiding devotion to righting wrongs wherever they find them.