Hopefuls make final pitches in Ga.
Walker, Warnock closing out Senate race at own speed
ATLANTA — With only a few days left in the closely watched Senate runoff election in Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, are closing out the campaign with the divergent strategies they have deployed through much of the 2022 midterm cycle.
While Warnock has kept a packed schedule of public events and media interviews, Walker has preferred a less visible approach.
Warnock started Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he is the senior pastor. He peppered his sermon — before a packed room of longtime parishioners, members of Congress and members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity that he belongs to — with allusions to the election, reminding the parish multiple times to vote.
He also joked that they had a choice between two candidates whose “last name starts with W.”
Warnock ended his message with the same refrain he has used on the campaign trail.
He reminded all to “keep the faith and keep looking up.”
From there, his campaign had meet-and-greets with voters, capped by rallies near Athens.
Walker’s campaign, meanwhile, alerted the media to one rally Sunday, part of what his campaign is calling
an “Evict Warnock Bus Tour.” He had the support of two men he hopes will be future colleagues: Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana.
Walker’s pace is light for a race that appears to be winnable for either candidate, according to polls.
The outcome of Tuesday’s election will determine whether Democrats win a 51st vote in the Senate, an addition that would offer some procedural benefits in the chamber. For Republicans, a win by Walker would be a symbolic victory, reasserting Georgia’s red streak despite the Democratic surge two years ago.
The candidates’ closing arguments have not changed much since last month, when Warnock edged out Walker but fell short of the 50% threshold, sending the race into overtime.
Warnock has focused on promoting both Democrats’ policy wins and his willingness to work with Republicans. Walker has sought to tie the senator to President Joe Biden’s agenda and focused more on cultural issues than policy points.
The race has also been remarkably personal, as the candidates have traded attacks on their family ties and qualifications, and Walker has fended off accusations
of violent behavior.
On Saturday, Warnock held a morning rally focused on getting voters to the polls Tuesday.
Hundreds crowded a parking lot near downtown Atlanta, where Warnock said he was “on the verge of victory.”
“But I don’t want us to do the victory dance before we actually get into the end zone,” he told the crowd.
Later that morning, Walker was inside his tour bus at an empty tailgate party outside the SEC championship game, waiting for the rain to stop. He eventually decamped to shake hands and take selfies with football fans decked out in the University of Georgia’s red and black. Some wished him luck and shared in warm embraces.
Walker delivered no remarks and declined to answer questions from a small huddle of reporters, as his staffers waved cameras back.
“I’ve never been hiding,” he said later in a short interview with Politico, rejecting accusations that his campaign team was keeping him away from voters and the press.
Walker’s anemic pace in the race’s closing stretch has caused consternation among his allies. Some have feared the Trump-endorsed Republican is running out of time to draw in moderate conservatives and Black voters, who make up about one-third of Georgia’s electorate and appear to overwhelmingly support Walker.
Walker supporters have brushed away criticisms of his campaign pace, saying they believed the significance of the race and Walker’s conservative values would move Republican voters to the polls.
“To be able to get to keep the Senate at 50-50 is terribly important,” said Rob Jackson, 74, the president of a sports marketing consulting company.
Warnock ended Saturday with as much fanfare and energy as he began it, joining several U.S. representatives, including Grace Meng of New York, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Judy Chu of California, before a crowd of hundreds at an event near downtown Atlanta. The gathering was hosted by the AAPI Victory Fund, a voter mobilization super PAC focused on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the fast-growing demographic in Georgia and across the nation.
In early voting, which ended Friday, Georgia eclipsed its daily record twice last week.
Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary of state’s office, wrote Tuesday on Twitter that nearly 310,000 people had voted that day, surpassing the previous record that had been set Monday.
At the start of Wednesday, about 833,000, nearly 12 percent, of Georgia’s 7 million voters had cast ballots early, according to the secretary of state’s office.