“I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children,” declared Warnock,a Baptist pastor and his state’s first black senator. “Georgia,you have been praying with your lips and your legs,your hands and your feet,your heads and your hearts. You have put in the hard work,and here we are standing together.”
In last month’s election,Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast,but fell short of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid the second round. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver – who tallied 2.1 per cent of votes cast on November 8 – prevented either from taking a majority.
Walker,a football legend who first gained fame at the University of Georgia and later in the NFL in the 1980s,was unable to overcome a bevy of damaging allegations,including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions.
The race was also the last test of Donald Trump’s clout with voters as he seeks the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in 2024. The former president had a mixed record in his most competitive endorsements for Congress in the November midterm elections,including Walker.
“The numbers look like they’re not going to add up,” Walker told supporters late into the count at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta. “There’s no excuses in life,and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.”