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Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock (D)
Nearly 10,000 registered voters in Hart County showed up on Tuesday, Dec. 6, to cast their ballot in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff election between incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and challenger Herschel Walker (R).
Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday in a closely fought race, giving Democrats a slim two-seat majority in the upper house in Washington.
Warnock was leading Walker 51.1% to 48.8% as of 11:50 p.m. Tuesday night, with 98% of precincts reporting. The Warnock victory in the final contest of the 2022 election cycle gave Democrats 51 seats in the Senate to 49 for Republicans.
The following local results were provided by the Hart County Board of Elections. Hart County Elections Coordinator, Robin Webb said that the election results in Hart County would be certified by the Secretary of State’s office on Friday, Dec. 9.
Unofficial results show Walker received 7,505 votes from Hart County voters; 223 absentee ballots by mail, 3,684 early votes, and 3,598 votes on election day.
Warnock received a total 2,270 votes; 172 absentee ballots by mail, 1,269 early votes, and 829 votes on election day.
Hart County contributed a total of 9,775 votes to the statewide election, which is 57 percent of the total number of registered voters in Hart County. During the general election on Nov. 8, 62 percent of the registered voters in Hart County showed up at the ballot box, casting 720 more votes than what was collected during the runoff.
In November, Walker received 474 more votes than he did during the runoff, and Warnock received 52 more votes in the general election.
Though Warnock won around 38,000 more votes statewide than Walker in the November general election, neither candidate earned more than 50 percent of the vote required by Georgia law to prevent a runoff, pushing the nationally watched race to a December rematch.
The lengthy campaign that finally concluded Tuesday night was the most expensive race of the 2022 cycle, with outside groups and the candidates’ campaigns spending more than $401 million in the race, according to campaign-finance tracking group OpenSecrets.
Capitol Beat News Service contributed to this story.