Warnock win ensures Dems Senate majority
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election yesterday, ensuring Democrats an outright majority in the Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s term and helping cap an underwhelming midterm cycle for the Republican Party in the last major vote of the year.
With Warnock’s second runoff victory in as many years, Democrats will have a 51:49 Senate majority, gaining a seat from the current 50:50 split with John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania.
Democrats’ outright majority in the Senate means the party will no longer have to negotiate a power-sharing deal with Republicans and won’t have to rely on Vice-president Kamala Harris to break tie votes.
There will be divided government, however, with Republicans having narrowly flipped House control.
In last month’s election, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes out of almost four million cast, but fell short of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Walker, an NFL legend, was unable to overcome a bevy of damaging allegations, including that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions, and that he once held a gun to his ex-wife’s head and threatened to kill her.
During his campaign, Warnock distanced himself from Biden, whose approval ratings have lagged as inflation remains high. Bypassing the President, Warnock decided instead to campaign with former President Barack Obama.
Walker, meanwhile, avoided campaigning with Trump until the campaign’s final day, when the pair conducted a conference call with supporters.
Walker’s defeat bookends the Republican Party’s struggles this year to win with flawed candidates cast from Donald Trump’s mold, a blow to the former president as he builds his third White House bid. —AP