According to projections by various American media, the Democratic Party candidate, Senator Raphael Warnock, defeated his Republican rival Herschel Walker in the second round of elections for a seat in the US Senate in the state of Georgia. With this win, President Joe Biden’s party strengthens its control of the Upper House by winning 51 of the 100 seats and will no longer depend on Vice President Kamala Harris for the casting vote.
The win also allows Democrats to gain greater control of Senate committees, rather than cutting seats in half as before. A factor that greatly benefits the Biden administration, which will face far fewer obstacles to appointments to leadership positions that by law require upper house approval.
“I am honored to utter the four most powerful words of democracy: The people have spoken,” said Warnock, a preacher at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — where he was preceded by civil rights leader Martin Luther King — as he addressed his followers the Democratic Victory Party.
His opponent, a former soccer star, suffered a defeat when he appeared in front of his supporters. Without naming the winner, he declared that “we put up a tremendous fight”. “Never let anyone tell you you can’t do it. I will keep fighting for Georgia. I will keep fighting for you.”
The importance of the appointment was reflected in the high turnout in a second round of parliamentary elections. Almost 3.8 million people went to the polls in a state of ten million people. In the first round on November 8th, which was about control of the two chambers of Congress, the state governor and the local parliament, the turnout was around four million people.
Reverend Warnock at his final campaign rally in Atlanta this Monday before the election CHENEY ORR (Portal)
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Warnock beat Walker by just 25,000 votes, or 50.40%, to his rival’s 49.60%, with 93% of the votes counted. A resounding span for what Georgia is. A former Republican stronghold that has increasingly become a swing state over the past decade, as a buoyant economy has attracted a younger and more minority population.
Already in the first ballot the pastor had received more votes than his rival. But he had failed to surpass the 50% threshold of support, and Georgian law requires a re-vote between the two candidates with the most votes if neither achieves that majority.
The result of Tuesday’s vote represents a new rejection for former President Donald Trump, who expressed his support for Walker in the Republican primary and today saw his New York real estate group plead guilty to seventeen counts of tax fraud known. Supporting the tycoon in his weak hours, who is openly questioned these days among the Republicans who had backed him, wasn’t enough. In that state, Trump is not a particularly popular figure: in the 2020 presidential election, the then tenant of the White House pressured authorities in Georgia, where Biden won by just 12,000 votes, to invalidate that result and hand him the victory appoint . The governor who opposed those demands, Republican Brian Kemp, won re-election by eight percentage points more votes than his Democratic rival Stacey Abrams.
Walker’s failure is not solely due to his association with Trump. The ex-sportsman’s campaign has been plagued with scandals and missteps. From allegations of abusing and paying for abortions for women he had gotten pregnant – despite his public stance against voluntary abortion – to allegations that he keeps his residency out of state, in Texas, rather than in Georgia.
In a tweet, President Biden Warnock showed a photo of his call to congratulate him and commented that “Tonight, Georgia voters took a step forward in favor of our democracy and rejected ultra-MAGAism (MAGA is the acronym for Make America Great Again , Trump’s motto) and most importantly they sent a good man back to the Senate. For the next six years.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has played a key role in the Senate by holding the key to the tiebreak between Republicans and Democrats during the vote, also congratulated Warnock. “Georgia voters said they wanted a senator to fight for them, and they got it by electing (Reverend Warnock) to the United States Senate. Congratulations my friend.”
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