Can Warnock rebuild the coalition that fueled his 2021 win?

Warnock emerged as a breakout star in national politics after he and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff swept the U.S. Senate runoffs to flip control of the chamber.

Now up for a full six-year term, Warnock’s campaign promotes him as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the Senate in 2022. But, like Abrams, he’s not veering from the liberal policies and stances that fueled his political rise.

He’s embraced an expansion of voting rights as his top priority. He supports the roughly $2 trillion social spending plan that’s the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s agenda. And he was a reliable Democratic vote on every other major issue that surfaced his first year in office.

Republicans will try to turn that record against him in 2022 to back up their attacks in 2020 that painted him as a “radical socialist.”

Herschel Walker became the de facto GOP front-runner thanks to his towering name recognition and his tight alliance with Trump. Most big-name Republicans were so fearful Walker would move back to Georgia to run that they steered clear.

But despite entering the race in August, the former football star has yet to account for persistent issues that have shadowed his campaign: a history of violence against women, questions about his academic credentials and concerns about his readiness for the job.

Several Republican rivals, led by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, will try to leverage those vulnerabilities to gain a spot in a runoff with Walker. If their efforts fail, Democrats are poised to bring those issues to the forefront.