After appearing on the ballot several times within the span of just a few years, Raphael Warnock — a pastor at a church in the Atlanta area where the late Martin Luther King Jr. also preached — has secured a full term of six years representing Georgia in the U.S. Senate. The state’s other Senator, fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff, is now roughly two years into his own first full term of six years.
Warnock was previously serving the final two years of the last term of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson after winning in an early 2021 runoff election against then-incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed by the Republican governor to serve for some of that term. This time, his race once again went to a runoff, which was required under Georgia law since none of the Senate contenders cracked 50 percent in the first round. After winning more votes in the first round, Warnock once again prevailed, defeating Trump-backed Republican Herschel Walker in a runoff contest marked by high turnout in early voting — including record single-day levels and jumps in the shares of votes from both Democratically aligned and Black voters. “Once again, Georgians have proven that when it comes time to vote, they’ll show up and vote for a leader who will fight for them. Congratulations, @ReverendWarnock!” Barack Obama said Wednesday.
Once again, Georgians have proven that when it comes time to vote, they’ll show up and vote for a leader who will fight for them. Congratulations, @ReverendWarnock!
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 7, 2022
In results available early Wednesday, Warnock was nearly 3 percentage points ahead of Walker, whose background includes time as a football player. Before both the November elections and the runoff election, in which Election Day was on Tuesday, Obama made in-person appearances in Georgia to support the Warnock campaign. Besides uplifting the Democrat, Obama also memorably questioned Walker’s basic competence. Throughout the campaign, Walker faced questions about apparent lies in which he was involved covering his personal, educational, and business backgrounds. He even memorably claimed he worked as a police officer or at least in law enforcement, despite no apparent record of a serious position in the field. He also characterized himself as a divinely selected “warrior,” faced accusations of domestic violence, took at least partial credit for businesses in which he wasn’t involved in the founding or primary ownership, and characterized himself as having led the largest minority-owned food company in the country, which just wasn’t true in any estimation.
