The closely-watched race for the U.S. Senate in Georgia between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will head to a runoff election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday afternoon.
“Ballots are being built as we speak, and counties are making preparations,” Raffensperger told reporters.
There was a third-party candidate in the race, and neither Warnock nor Walker was projected by CBS News to clear the 50% threshold of votes needed to declare victory, setting up another showdown between the two at the ballot box on Dec. 6.
Warnock tweeted Wednesday, “We’re going to a runoff, Georgia! Let’s do this one more time!”
As is the case in many states in the 2022 midterms, the economy has been the top issue for voters in Georgia, according to a recent poll by the University of Georgia.
According to early exit polls, voters in Georgia voters were split as far as the most important qualities in a candidate: 36% say they’re looking for a candidate who shares their values, while 32% said a candidate’s honesty and integrity are most important to them.
In October, Walker’s campaign was rocked by allegations that he paid for at least one woman to have an abortion. Walker has denied the allegations, and national Republicans have stuck by him.
Georgia was one of the closest races in the 2020 election, with President Joe Biden winning the state by around 10,000 votes. Both of its Senate races went to runoff elections that year, with Warnock defeating Republican Kelly Loeffler. In the other race, Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated David Perdue, who had been leading going into the runoff.
This year’s race is another crucial one for both parties as they vie for control of the Senate.
Early voting shattered records, with more than 2.5 Georgia residents voting ahead of Election Day, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Eran Ben-Porath and Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.
