Democratic US Senator Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia run-off election, according to the Associated Press news agency, ensuring his party an outright majority in the Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s term.
With Warnock’s victory on Tuesday, Democrats will have a 51-49 Senate majority, gaining a seat from the current 50-50 split following John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania.
There will be a divided government, however, with Republicans having narrowly flipped control of the House of Representatives.
“After a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honour to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock, 53, told jubilant supporters who packed an Atlanta hotel ballroom .
“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 midterms, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 ballots out of almost four million votes cast, but fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a run-off. The senator appeared to be headed for a wider final margin in Tuesday’s run-off, the AP said.
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