Campaign Action
Georgia is once again headed to a Senate runoff election, as neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker has cleared 50% of the vote. With 95% of the vote in, Warnock has a narrow lead, 49.4% to 48.5%. A Libertarian candidate is drawing around 2% of the vote.
In 2020, Warnock went to a runoff against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler after a general election that, because it was a special triggered by the 2019 resignation of Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, had multiple Republican and Democratic candidates. In the same 2020 general election, then-Sen. David Perdue led now-Sen. Jon Ossoff 49.7% to 47.9%, before Ossoff went on to win his runoff on the same day as Warnock. Both of those January 2021 runoffs are a hopeful precedent, but there’s no question it’s a disappointment that Warnock did not eke out that extra 0.6 percentage points.
In less hopeful news, the reason the 2021 runoff was in January and this year’s will be on December 6 is because, in their major voter suppression bill, Republicans reduced the time between a general and a runoff and dramatically cut early voting opportunities, including entirely eliminating weekend early voting, which Black voters are particularly likely to use. So they’ve done their best to rig this one.
The December 6 runoff should be a major focus of attention and activism for Democrats. Regardless of where control of the Senate lands—and this runoff could end up determining that, as it did in 2020—we need more senators like Raphael Warnock.
This race could determine control of the Senate: Donate now to help Sen. Raphael Warnock win the runoff.