The polls were spot on in Georgia’s midterm elections Tuesday, with Gov. Brian Kemp headlining a strong night for Republicans while Herschel Walker and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock appear as this is written to be headed for a runoff that could decide the fate of the entire U.S. Senate.
Walker and Warnock swapped leads through the evening, but the 2% of the vote captured by Libertarian Chase Oliver managed to keep either man from clawing above the 50%-plus one needed to avoid a runoff. Now all eyes, not to mention tens of millions of dollars, will be on Georgia over the next month.
Kemp meanwhile carried the GOP torch for the rest of his party’s statewide ticket, which swept Democratic opposition across the board. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Attorney General Chris Carr, Insurance Commissioner John King, and School Superintendent Richard Woods all won a second term while Burt Jones and Tyler Harper won their first statewide races for lt. governor and agriculture commissioner, respectively.
Georgia’s U.S. House races were a bit less exciting with every incumbent scoring a victory, including the 2nd District’s U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who some prognosticators had pegged as an upset candidate in his race against Republican Chris West. Republican Rich McCormick defeated Bob Christian in the newly-redrawn 6th District in the Atlanta suburbs, while fellow newcomer Mike Collins won over Democrat Tabitha Johnson-Green in the redrawn 10th District. More than $20 million was spent in an effort to unseat 14th District Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a race that was never even competitive, paving the way for the Rome Republican to further raise her profile and gain some plum committee positions under a (likely) newly Republican U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans now control 9 of the 14 Georgia congressional seats, an increase of one from 2020.
Down in the state legislature there were only a handful of competitive races. A couple of note –
- In Fulton County’s HD 48, which includes parts of Roswell, Republican Scott Hilton knocked off incumbent state Rep. Mary Robichaux to pick up a seat for the GOP.
- Republican Deborah Silcox defeated Democrat Kelly Coffman in a hard-fought race in HD 53 in Sandy Springs.
More to come on these races and many others later this week.
