Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will win Georgia Senate runoff

A senior GOP source involved in campaign strategy says the Georgia Senate runoff race has been tight so far because of the partnership between Gov. Brian Kemp and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s super PAC, which dropped $2 million into Kemp’s get-out-the-vote operation.

The source blames the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — in partnership with the RNC — for a lackluster voter-targeting effort. CNN has reached out to the NRSC for comment.

There’s been an ongoing feud over tactics and strategy between the NRSC — led by Sen. Rick Scott — and allies to Mitch McConnell, whose super PAC the Senate Leadership Fund was the biggest spender in Senate races.

While the race is tight, several GOP sources believe Walker’s path to victory is complicated because of where the outstanding votes are coming from.

All eyes are on Georgia’s most populous counties tonight as votes continue to come in.

In Fulton County — the most populous county — Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker needs to close the gap with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock — who leading with 82% of the vote so far — with 67% of the vote reporting, CNN’s John King said.

At the moment Warnock is over-performing in his results compared to Nov. 8 in Atlanta and the suburbs around it, King added, a key advantage for the Democratic senator.

Walker’s comeback plan hinges on Election Day votes, in hopes to close the Warnock’s lead in those key counties.

Watch:

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Gabe Sterling, the chief operating officer in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, talks to CNN on Tuesday night.

While many of the larger, urban counties are already reporting a significant amount of votes, Gabe Sterling, the chief operating officer in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, said they are still waiting for several rural counties to report their tallies.

“But it’s so close, you know, those counties that have 10,000 votes, 4,000 votes — and they’re going to go 80% for Walker. They’re going to keep on coming in,” he added.

In order to upload votes, poll workers often have to drive through the county to deliver tallies, sometimes on memory cards, Sterling said, pointing to Fulton County as an example, which is about 90 miles long.

“We had a car accident with one car carrying one of the cards,” he told CNN. He said both workers are okay and they were able to retrieve the voting information and get it to a county headquarters.

“This is the kind of stuff that happens on Election Day because you have thousands of people out there doing their jobs,” Sterling said.

He said the state saw record turnout today — including a record number of people both voting in-person and by absentee ballots in a runoff election.

But there is still many more ballots to count, saying, “It’s going to be a long night”

As the race remains tight in Georgia, Republican Herschel Walker is waiting to see if his efforts to build off Gov. Brian Kemp’s credibility with GOP voters has paid off. 

After it became clear he would find himself in a runoff with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Walker embraced Kemp in a way he declined to do during the general election race.

That’s not surprising given Kemp won his reelection by nearly 8 percentage points and has built goodwill and trust with GOP voters in a state where a popular former Republican president tried to defeat him at the ballot box.

But there are no hard feelings from Kemp’s orbit, which has remained focused on getting a Republican Senate candidate elected while leaving the personal aspects of the race aside.

 “It’s pretty clear cut for him,” one Kemp adviser told CNN. 

Even though Kemp and Walker’s messages weren’t aligned during the general election, it was a “no brainer” that Kemp needed to support Walker in the runoff, the adviser said.  

Meanwhile, the optimism is rising at Walker’s campaign party tonight, with supporters cheering as votes come in, with the lead occasionally see-sawing back and forth with Warnock.

But behind the scenes, strategists quietly worry that Walker may have hit his high-water mark, with much of the vote-counting already finished across many rural counties. 

While Election Day turnout has benefited Walker, these votes are just being counted in Georgia’s biggest counties, where Warnock is expected to have a far stronger Election Day turnout.

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker leads in Election Day votes so far, CNN’s David Chalian reports, while incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leads in mail-in and early in-person votes.

Walker leads the Election Day vote by around 32.8 percentage points while nearly 64% of that voting category remains uncounted.

Chalian noted that the ultimate margin of the Election Day vote lead will be determined by the ballots still to be reported from the more populous counties of Georgia:

An early morning pedestrian is silhouetted against the sunrise as he walks through the National Mall and past the US Capitol on November 7.

If Democrats win the Senate runoff in Georgia and secure a slim 51-49 majority over Republicans, they will have significant governing advantages compared to the 50-50 split in the current Congress, during which a power sharing agreement gives Republicans considerable leverage over Democrats despite being in the minority.

The Senate runoff race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is tightening as more counties report results.

Less than two hours after polls closed, more than 66% of the vote is in, according to CNN tallies. And Walker leads by a slim margin of just more than 25,000 votes.

He has a little more than 50.6% of ballots tallied so far and Warnock has about 49.4%, CNN counts show.

Remember: Democrats already control the Senate with 50 senators plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, but a victory in Georgia would give the party an outright majority.

That would come with significant benefits for the party. Democrats would have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance President Joe Biden’s nominees more easily.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reports from Walker’s campaign headquarters:

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Faith leaders kick off the election night party of US Sen. Raphael Warnock on Tuesday.

Sen. Raphael Warnock’s election headquarters is starting to fill up with supporters and members of the campaign.

Faith leaders including a rabbi, an imam and a minister kicked off the election watch party, heralding the diversity of the state and celebrating “the New South.”

Warnock made his faith central to his campaign for reelection, arguing he’s a pastor in the Senate, not just a senator who happens to be a pastor.

Warnock has long maintained public service was part of his life’s mission and that his work in Washington is an extension of what he has done his whole career.

Fellow Morehouse College grad, actor and director Spike Lee, is among the crowd. A gospel artist is expected to take the stage later tonight.

Gov. Brian Kemp’s orbit was surprised by how wide the margin was when it came to Georgians who voted for the popular Republican governor, but not the GOP Senate candidate in November.

Herschel Walker was the only Republican to lose on the statewide ticket and got fewer votes than Kemp in every county.

Kemp and Walker had very different messages — and several Republicans on the ground in Georgia wanted Walker to shift his message over the last few weeks to align more with Kemp’s, but he has made little effort to do so despite those appeals. 

One Georgia voter, Ed Cordell, who did not vote for Walker in the general election but did support him in the runoff noted this. 

Asked if he believed anything changed in Walker’s message, Cordell said:

A voter checks in at a polling location in Atlanta on Tuesday.

More than one million people cast their ballots Tuesday in Georgia’s runoff election, according to the state’s secretary of state, and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker were out making their final pitches as they urged people to vote.

Here are some scenes from Election Day:

An election worker replaces a voting sticker at a polling location in Atlanta.

Republican candidate Herschel Walker poses with a supporter Tuesday at the Marietta Diner in Marietta, Georgia.

Voters cast their ballots in Atlanta.

A voter casts a ballot in Atlanta.

US Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks to supporters in Norcross, Georgia, on Tuesday.

People wait in line to cast their ballot in Atlanta.

Check out more photos from this year’s midterm elections.

Republican candidate Herschel Walker is poised to see a strong showing in the Election Day vote — a sentiment that even Georgia Democrats don’t quarrel with — but Republicans know that won’t be enough to defeat Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Going into Election Day, nearly 1.9 million Georgians had already cast early or absentee ballots, which gave Warnock a considerable head start in his quest to win reelection.

As supporters start filing into the Walker campaign event tonight at the College Football Hall of Fame, there is cautious optimism among Republicans, but the robust confidence from Election Night in November is gone.

Inside the Walker campaign’s boiler room, strategists are pouring over the returns from rural Georgia counties, with one campaign official telling CNN: “Turnout is high enough to make it a race.”

But those words are key: “Make it a race” does not guarantee a victory, but campaign strategists say they still see a path to victory, no thanks to skepticism about early voting.

A judge extended voting by 45 minutes Tuesday evening in a single precinct in Henry County, southeast of Atlanta. 

The voting continued until 7:45 p.m. ET at the precinct at Salem Baptist at North McDonough, according to Henry County’s election office.

Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, told CNN her group sought the extension after problems with the poll books and other machines delayed voting Tuesday morning.

She said her group was able to document that voters did not receive emergency ballots until 45 minutes had elapsed.

Elction officials in Fulton County began to upload the results of more than 184,000 advanced voting ballots shortly after 7 p.m. ET when the polls closed, Interim Director of Elections Nadine Williams said Tuesday. 

The results of another 14,000 absentee ballots from all 249 Election Day sites will be uploaded before midnight, Williams added. Counties can now process early votes earlier, which is leading to a smoother process at the counting center than some years past.

Designated ballot transporters will soon begin arriving at the Fulton County Elections center, driving the secured ballots to the location, where they will be met by security, who will help them bring the ballots into the building.

“It was a great day… no wait times,” she said. 

Williams estimated the county, Georgia’s largest by population, saw “well over” 70,000 voters on Tuesday.

As results start to roll in from Georgia’s runoff election, it will take time to see how tight the margin is between the two candidates, CNN’s chief national correspondent John King cautioned Tuesday.

Most counties have already started counting early votes. Those will be the ones that are released after polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

This means Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will likely open up an early lead over his Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Typically, early votes tend to skew more Democratic, King explained.

The Georgia Senate race saw a similar pattern in November, King said — Warnock came out with an early lead when the first results were reported.

By 8 p.m. ET in the general election, Warnock was leading Walker by more than 140,000 votes, but as in-person votes were counted, Walker took the lead an hour later. Since Georgia is a competitive state, as votes came in, who was leading the race changed frequently, King said.

“Early on, you see a lot of blue on the map. If you’re in the Warnock campaign that’s great, that means you turned out your early vote and are building a lead,” King said.

US Sen. Raphael Warnock, left, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker

It’s 7 p.m. ET, and polls are closing across Georgia in the high-stakes Senate runoff election.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker are facing each other again after neither received more than 50% of the vote in the Nov. 8 general election. Warnock led that race with 49.4% of the vote, Walker carried 48.5% of the vote and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver won 2.1%.

This election is Warnock’s fourth campaign in two years. In 2020, he ran against appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler to finish former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. That race also went to a runoff that Warnock won in January 2021. Warnock and Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s wins in that election gave Democrats control of the Senate.

This time around, the stakes aren’t quite as high — but still significant. Democrats already control the Senate with 50 senators plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, but a victory in Georgia would give the party an outright majority.

While Donald Trump’s endorsement helped Walker secure the nomination, the former president mostly stayed on the sidelines throughout the runoff campaign amid concerns he could turn off independents and suburban women, critical voting blocs in the state. Trump did hold a tele-rally for Walker on Monday. Former President Barack Obama, on the other hand, traveled to Georgia to stump for Warnock and cut a new ad for him.

Walker’s campaign has faced several controversies. In November, CNN’s KFile reported that Walker is getting a homestead tax exemption in Texas this year – something that is supposed to apply to primary residences. Walker registered to vote in Georgia in 2021 and lived in Texas for 20 years. The report has resurfaced questions about Walker’s residency that have dogged him throughout the campaign.

As Georgia Democrats worked to reelect Sen. Raphael Warnock in the runoff, they employed a strategy to make the case to swing voters that may have been uncomfortable with Warnock’s Republican opponent Herschel Walker.

Democrats put the voters that supported both Gov. Brian Kemp and Sen. Warnock at the forefront during the runoff in a direct appeal to swing voters and independents.

That approach will pay off, according to Sarah Riggs Amico, a campaign surrogate for Warnock, who lost a bid for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2018, because she argues Warnock simultaneously never compromised core Democratic values. 

Former President Donald Trump leaves the stage after speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month.

Former President Donald Trump and his team are looking for a win in Georgia’s Senate race to inject energy and momentum into Trump’s so-far uninspired campaign.

The former president really needs Herschel Walker to win — following a midterm where Trump’s endorsed candidates mostly either flopped or fizzled, and a lackluster announcement for a third Presidential bid.

Sources close to Trump also believe that a Walker victory could slow the GOP shift away from the former president as more Republicans say it is time to move on from Trump. 

And those in Trump’s orbit are keenly aware that a loss will be blamed squarely on the former president, who didn’t just endorse Walker, but recruited the scandal plagued former football star to run for the Senate.

Republicans urged Trump not to announce his 2024 presidential run until after the Dec. 6 runoff, and warned the former president that it would energize Democratic voters and could help boost Warnock’s fundraising. Trump ignored the request.

During the general election Trump’s super PAC poured $3.6 million into TV ads supporting Walker. Despite the importance of this race, Trump did not visit the state before the runoff as both Walker and Trump aides believed the risk was too high that an appearance by Trump would not help with moderate Republicans and drive out Democratic voters. Instead, Trump did a tele-rally on the eve of the election, out of public view.  

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One in Glendale, Arizona, on Tuesday.

President Biden will soon be briefed on the latest in the Georgia Senate runoff by his political team as he wraps up his final meetings in Arizona. Those briefings will continue throughout his flight tonight back to Washington, DC, with Biden expected to monitor results by television as well. 

But the travel itself is instructive about how Biden and his team view this moment. He wasn’t invited to campaign for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock during the runoff in a repeat of the lead up to the midterm elections. 

Officials note that was actually the case in Arizona as well, where Democrats quietly made clear to White House officials a Biden visit before Election Day wouldn’t be helpful. But those same Democrats overperformed statewide races, winning the governor’s race and holding onto a Senate seat. 

Biden visited Michigan last week, a state he only visited once before the midterms, but where Democrats also overperformed across that state — including huge wins in the governor’s race and a victory in the secretary of state battle. 

These are official, not political trips, designed to tout agenda wins that turned into major private sector investment in each state. But implicit in each visit is a clear nod Democratic midterm performance – and reality that both states were critical to Biden’s 2020 election victory. 

As Biden weighs his own reelection bid, these states will be critical again in 2024 — as well as Georgia.

Asked if a Warnock win would mean a Biden visit to the state would soon follow, one Democratic official responded with two words: “Stay tuned.” 

US Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks in Norcross, Georgia, on Tuesday.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is gearing up for election night in Atlanta, Georgia. The senator stopped by his election night headquarters earlier this evening to assess the scene. His campaign tells us he’ll be watching the returns as they come in very closely. 

As his name appears for the fifth time on the ballot in two years, Warnock says he relates to Georgia voters who may be feeling tired. 

Warnock’s GOP rival was outpaced by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp by more than 200,000 votes in the November general election.

But still Warnock is cautioning Democrats against getting too complacent.

“We had historic turnout during the early voting period but we should not rest on our laurels. The job is not done,” said Warnock. “The truth is my opponent still could win this election. He could. There is a path.” 

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Commerce, Georgia, in March.

Georgia Republican operatives breathed a collective sigh of relief when it became clear former President Donald Trump would not be headed to the Peach State ahead of the December runoff.

Trump’s relationship with the state is complicated. After winning Georgia in 2016, Trump’s record has trended downward.

In 2020, he became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia in 28 years. Two months after his defeat, both Republican Senate candidates lost in their respective runoffs, with many in the party blaming Trump’s election denialism rhetoric for lower GOP turnout.

After Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refused to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results, Trump launched a years-long vendetta against the two men, endorsing primary challengers earlier this year. Both men defeated their Trump-backed opponents and went on to win in November.

In part — because of Trump’s losing record in the state — aides to both Walker and Trump believed the political risk was too great for the former president to appear alongside his handpicked Senate candidate. After holding two early campaign rallies in Georgia, Trump did not set foot in the state since March of this year. Despite Walker’s aides believing their candidate should keep his distance from Trump, the two men speak on the phone regularly.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there has been a “very strong turnout” today in the runoff election between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker.

The election chief said there have not been any major issues and the average wait time at polling places now is just a few minutes.

Raffensperger thanked staff, saying he thinks “they will have these results posted very quickly.” Polls will close across the state at 7 p.m. ET.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said that as of this afternoon, more than one million votes have been cast on this Election Day.  

CNN has reported that approximately 1.9 million pre-election day votes are already in (through mail and early voting).

Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for Georgia’s Secretary of State Office, indicated that the larger counties will likely have the majority of their early votes reported by 7:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. tonight.

It’s been a “fair and honest election,” Raffensperger said.

Raffensperger said his office plans to audit the runoff race through a hand-counting process to ensure everybody knows their vote was counted.

Fulton County began counting early ballots at 2 p.m. ET, CNN’s Dianne Gallagher reported from a vote-counting location in Atlanta on Tuesday.

As for the Election Day votes, Gallagher noted that there are precautions to make sure the process to deliver the ballots to the counting location is secure.

“Designated people go and they pick those ballots up from each precinct. They take the secure ballots and look, and they are not allowed to use their personal cars for security purposes —both for the worker and the ballots. They can even ask for security to accompany them if, they want to. They then drive those to this location here, where they then go into a card-delivery system,” she explained.

In the 2020 cycle, Democrats had to sweep both Senate runoffs in Georgia to secure the 50-50 split in the Senate that, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ status as the tie-breaking vote, would give them control.

This time, Democrats have already retained control, with 50 seats clinched last month and Georgia representing a potential 51st.

But the stakes remain high: A win by incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock victory would give Democrats the majority outright, rather than requiring the power-sharing agreement that is now in place. That outright majority would come with significant benefits for the party. Democrats would have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance President Joe Biden’s nominees more easily.

For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee, with its 22 members, would shift from a split of 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans to 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans. That would remove a GOP procedural mechanism to slow down the confirmation of Biden’s judicial nominees.

It’s why advertising spending in the runoff has surpassed $80 million, according to a CNN analysis of data from ad tracking firm AdImpact. Democrats have outspent Republicans so far, by about $55.1 million to $25.8 million.

Voters cast their ballots in Norcross, Georgia, on Tuesday.

For Herschel Walker’s campaign, a robust Election Day turnout offers the only path to victory tonight in the Georgia runoff and advisers tell CNN they are heartened by what officials are seeing at polling locations across the state. 

When the Secretary of State’s office announced that 800,000 people had voted today — with the polls still open for another five hours — Team Walker breathed a collective sigh of grateful relief. 

The question, of course, is whether Democrats are also turning out in force for incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, given the compressed period of early voting.  

Tonight, Republican officials are not exuding confidence or even predicting a win — and they are fuming over being massively outspent by Democrats — but they do believe strong turnout reports have kept Walker in the fight. 

Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr., said voters in Georgia have been “engaged” and “excited” throughout the entire runoff election process.

King, who is a supporter of Democratic nominee Sen. Raphael Warnock, said that he hopes numbers from Georgia’s secretary of state show that this has been one of the “highest turnouts ever” for an election of this type. He said he hopes Warnock will prevail with a “significant victory, because that would send a message to our state and nation.”

“The hope is that the people of Georgia want to elect a person who looks forward,” King said. “Herschel Walker demonstrated that he is not a… the kind of candidate that should represent the state of Georgia,” he added, referring to the Republican nominee in the race.

A voter exits a polling location in Columbus, Georgia, on November 27.

For the past few weeks, Georgia Republican election officials have been crowing about early in-person voting turnout.

On Friday, the state broke its single-day record, again, when more than 350,000 people went to the polls to cast ballots before Election Day.

But these numbers, and the narrative around them, might ultimately be misleading.

Though several days last week ended with historically high single-day tallies, the overall number of early voters — as compared to the 2021 election — actually went down, from roughly 3.1 million last year to about 1.87 million during this year’s condensed early voting period. In the general election this year, about 2.5 million voted before Election Day.

The reason is simple: Under Georgia’s controversial voting law, passed in the months after last year’s runoffs, the time between the general election and the runoff was reduced from nine weeks to four. The compressed timeframe also meant fewer days of early voting and less time for voters to return mail-in ballots.

Given the obvious interest in the race, it’s a question of whether voters accustomed to voting before Election Day would show up Tuesday, and how that shift in behavior might affect wait times and counting of the votes.

Today’s runoff election in Georgia hinges on margins, CNN’s John King says.

In the past, the state has been reliably red, however President Joe Biden’s 2020 win has recently made the state competitive.

King says margins in Georgia’s most populous suburbs matter, using the governor’s 2022 race as an example of the role suburbs played. Watch his full analysis, below:

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks at a press conference in Atlanta on November 7.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp kept his distance from Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker as he coasted to reelection in a rematch with Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in the general election.

Since his victory, though, Kemp has more fully embraced his party’s Senate nominee – despite the governor’s bad blood with former President Donald Trump, who has been supporting Walker

Kemp has appeared with Walker at rallies. He has cut television ads for the former University of Georgia football star. And he has loaned the get-out-the-vote operation that helped propel him to victory to a Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell-aligned super PAC, seeking to help Walker with the ground game his campaign lacked.

If Walker wins, it will be Kemp’s direct involvement in helping to convince the suburbanites who split their tickets in November, rather than Trump’s occasional support from a distance, that played the most important role.

With states like Florida and Ohio turning a deeper shade of red, Democrats are desperate to broaden their national playing field — and Georgia appears to be their prime target following the 2020 election.

That year, President Joe Biden won the presidency and Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff flipped the state’s Senate seats. Biden even suggested moving up its presidential primary to fourth on the calendar in his recent letter to the Democratic National Committee.

That theory — or hope — of Georgia as a swing state faces a significant test on Tuesday.

With Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp emerging as Herschel Walker’s surrogate of choice during the homestretch, the results of the runoff could be viewed as a litmus test for Georgia Democrats. Specifically, whether the state has emerged as a true toss-up.

If Warnock wins despite Kemp’s willingness to lend his personal popularity and turnout apparatus to Walker, Democrats might actually be on to something. Though many in both parties would agree Walker has been a less-than-stellar nominee, he now has the firm, outspoken support of the state and national GOP behind him.

If that’s not enough to put him over the top, Republicans’ problems in Georgia are likely down to something more lasting than “candidate quality” issues.

On the flip side, a Walker victory would — for many of the same reasons — point precisely in the opposite direction. Georgia Republicans this year notched a clean sweep of statewide positions, with the exception, so far, of the US Senate seat still up for grabs. If Walker wins, despite all the concerns around his campaign, it will underscore the GOP’s abiding strength in the Peach State as long as Trump is out of sight and mind.

A voter casts their ballot on Tuesday in Columbus, Georgia.

The runoff between Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker has high stakes for the Senate. Polls are set to close at 7 p.m. ET tonight.

Keep these reads in your back pocket as you follow along tonight:

Former President Donald Trump attends a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on November 7.

Republican nominee Herschel Walker coasted to the Republican nomination in Georgia in large part because of the support of former President Donald Trump.

But Trump’s endorsement – while powerful enough to catapult his preferred contenders to the nominations in Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere – turned out to be an anchor in competitive statewide races this year.

Trump-backed candidates such as venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and former state attorney general Adam Laxalt in Nevada fumbled winnable races, while venture capitalist J.D. Vance, who eked out a victory in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary thanks to Trump’s last-minute endorsement, survived a much tougher-than-expected contest with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

A loss by Walker could further erode Republicans’ confidence in Trump’s ability to pick winners. It would also demonstrate what every national election since 2016 has shown: In many places, a close connection with Trump is a political liability.

As the 2024 Republican presidential primary begins to take shape, Trump – who hosted a tele-rally for Walker on Monday night – is already facing potential intra-party rivals emboldened by 2022’s results. A Walker loss would amplify calls for the party to turn elsewhere for leadership.

Voters cast their ballots at a polling location during the runoff election in Atlanta on Tuesday.

More than a million people have cast their vote on Election Day across Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a 4 p.m. ET briefing, adding that lines remained “relatively short.”

“What I would tell voters is that, right now, you have three hours to get out there. The lines are moving quickly,” he added. “The turnout is light, but steady.” 

About 100,000 to 110,000 people were voting in the state per hour, he said. 

CNN’s “Election Night In America Continued: GA Runoff Special Coverage” will stream live starting at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday through 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

CNN’s decision desk will be monitoring results and will make projections accordingly.

Polls close in the Peach State at 7 p.m. ET.

A voter casts a ballot at a polling location during the runoff election in Atlanta on December 6.

More than 800,000 Georgians have voted so far in person on Election Day, as of 2 p.m. ET, according to Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer at the Georgia secretary of state’s office.   

That number is likely a conservative estimate, Sterling added, and it’s in addition to roughly 1.9 million people who voted before Tuesday.

“We’ve seen smooth running everywhere, to be honest,” Sterling said at a news conference.

Sterling said that Election Day statewide has thus far had only a few hiccups.

Two locations will keep polls open beyond 7 p.m. ET, the typical poll-closing time. One polling place in Walker County will stay open until 7:30 p.m. ET due to what Sterling described as “human error,” and one in Gwinnett County will stay open until 7:08 p.m. ET. The issue at the Gwinnett precinct was unknown at this time, Sterling said. 

Sen. Raphael Warnock, left, and Herschel Walker

On the final full day of campaigning in Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock exuded confidence, but warned supporters against being complacent in his runoff election with Republican nominee and former football great Herschel Walker.

“There is still a path for Herschel Walker to win this race,” Warnock said after a campaign stop Monday. “If there’s anything I worry about it’s that people will think we don’t need their voice. We do. We need you to show up.”

Warnock was the leading vote-getter in the general election last month, but the contest extended into December since he failed to win a majority. After four weeks of runoff campaigning, Warnock and Democrats are optimistic that he can outlast Walker and secure a full, six-year term.

Such a victory would help solidify Georgia as a purple state after Joe Biden narrowly carried it in 2020 and Warnock and Jon Ossoff won January 2021 runoffs that delivered the president a Democratic Senate.

“We’re working on turnout, turnout, turnout,” Walker said as he barnstormed across northern Georgia at five scheduled rallies Monday. “A vote for Warnock is a vote for these failed policies. A vote for me is a better coming.”

The former Georgia football great spoke with a measure of nostalgia about his first bid for public office.

Tuesday’s race, though, is still expected to be tight, with both parties and allied groups pouring tens of millions into a contest that will shape the balance of power in the Senate over the next two years.

A sample ballot is displayed at a polling location in Marietta, Georgia, on Tuesday.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it was sending federal election monitors to voting sites in four Georgia counties for Tuesday’s Senate runoff: Cobb County, Fulton County, Gwinnett County and Macon-Bibb County.

The practice of DOJ organizing federal monitors at election sites traces back to the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act. The monitors include personnel from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and from its US Attorneys’ Offices.

President Joe Biden takes part in an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers phone bank for Senator Raphael Warnock in Boston on Friday.

Top Democratic leaders are driving home the importance of the Senate runoff election in Georgia by pointing out the difference an additional seat could make when members dissent from the party or the president’s agenda.

Speaking at a Boston fundraiser for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on Friday, President Joe Biden acknowledged the hurdles Democrats have had to clear to pass legislation in an evenly divided Senate. He referenced West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and alluded to Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who have not always supported his agenda, telling the crowd, “The reason we need Warnock is we cannot have every vote hanging on a single thread.”

Opposition by Manchin delayed passage of Democrats’ climate, health care and tax package, and he and Sinema have refused to support Democratic efforts to change the Senate’s legislative filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation.

Former President Barack Obama similarly warned Democrats on Thursday against becoming complacent in the final days of the Georgia runoff election.

“What’s the difference between 50 and 51 (senators)?” Obama asked. “The answer is a lot.”

“An extra senator gives Democrats more breathing room on important bills. It prevents one person from holding up everything. It also puts us in a better position a couple years from now when you’ve got another election and the Senate map is going to be tilted in the favor of Republicans,” the former president said.

People wait in line in Atlanta on Tuesday, December 6, to cast their ballot in the runoff election between Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Despite the rainy weather, a line began to form before 7 a.m. ET at the C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center polling site in southwest Atlanta. 

When the polls opened, voters moved through the queue relatively quickly, getting in and out within a few minutes. 

Tondalia Smith said she previously tried voting during the early voting period but left after an hour and a half of waiting. She returned to vote this morning and was pleasantly surprised by how fast she was able to cast her ballot. “I was like, thank you Jesus, I came early,” she said. 

When CNN asked if she was concerned the gloomy weather would impact turnout, she said, “No, not at all. We have to come outside.”

Other voters at the recreation center echoed that resolve. 

“It’s part of nature,” said Gail Banks, noting the rainy weather didn’t sway her and hopes it does not impact others.

“I think people have purpose in their hearts to get the right person in that office. So the weather is not going to be a factor coming out,” said James Hall, who voted with his 25-year-old grandson Demarco. 

“Our choices that we make today will determine a lot that goes on in the next 10 to 20 years,” said Demarco Hill, adding he wouldn’t miss the opportunity to vote whether there is rain, snow or sleet.

Voters line up at the Metropolitan Library to cast their ballots early in the runoff election in Atlanta on November 29.

A Georgia election official said the winner in Tuesday’s runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican nominee Hershel Walker might not be known on election night after record early voter turnout.

More than 1.8 million Georgians have voted so far, as of Dec. 3, with about 300,000 people voting early each day last week — setting records for the largest single-day early voting turnout in state history. Early voting for the runoff ended on Friday.

“There’s obviously a lot of enthusiasm,” Sterling said. “Both Democrats and Republicans can point to the turnout models and say, ‘that’s good for us,’ so nobody knows what’s going to happen.” 

A tight race: Before any votes are counted, CNN’s recent poll of the Georgia Senate runoff showed Warnock narrowly leading Walker 52% to 48% among likely voters.

According to the survey, nearly half of those who backed Walker (47%) said their vote was more about opposition to Warnock than support for their candidate. And 52% said their vote was more to support Walker.

Warnock’s supporters broadly said they were casting ballots to support their candidate (83%) rather than to oppose Walker (17%).

That difference, the poll suggests, could be a factor in driving turnout in the race.

Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker seen on the campaign trail in Atlanta and Greensboro, Georgia.

Heavy hitters and big dollars from both national parties have been pouring into Georgia for a race that will determine the balance of power in the Democratic-controlled Senate next year.

If Republican Herschel Walker prevails, the parties will again split the Senate 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing a tie-breaking vote and Democrats the slightest possible advantage.

Democrats will control the chamber after the party’s incumbents held their ground and Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman picked up a seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.

But this is still a race full of consequences.

In the short term, a Sen. Raphael Warnock victory would deliver more power to Democrats as they seek a firmer grip on the procedural life of the Senate, which could help them confirm more President Joe Biden nominees in an expeditious manner. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin would also lose some of his leverage if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had a vote to spare, which could hold added significance, given Manchin is facing reelection in 2024.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, spelled out the stakes on last week.

Thune also conceded that his party could use a morale boost after underperforming expectations in the midterms, despite narrowly gaining control of the House.

“It’d be nice to get a win on the books, and especially in a state like Georgia, where, frankly, we think we should be winning,” Thune said.

Beyond that, looking ahead to the next election in 2024, Republicans – already with a more favorable map than this year – would be better positioned to win back a majority, perhaps a significant one, if Walker can pad their numbers now.

A person receives a sticker that reads "I'm a Georgia voter" at the Metropolitan Library after voting early in Atlanta on November 29.

Democrats clinched 50 seats in the Senate, but the stakes remain high for today’s Georgia’s runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Neither candidate surpassed the 50% threshold needed to win the race outright in the November general election, forcing a runoff.

A runoff is an additional election used to determine the winner of a certain race when neither candidate earns the required threshold for victory – in this case, 50%.

In Georgia, runoffs are more straightforward than general elections, as the candidate with the most votes wins.

Heading into Tuesday’s Senate runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, more than 1.8 million Georgians have voted early after only about a week. Black voters have made up nearly a third of the early electorate so far, while more than a quarter of voters so far are under 50.

About 300,000 Georgians have voted early each day this week – setting records for the largest single-day early voting turnout in state history. Early voting for the runoff ended on Friday.

Georgians had only five mandatory days of early voting this year, compared with three weeks during the last runoff and for last month’s general election. All but 22 counties chose not to allow early voting last Saturday and Sunday as well.

Overall, 2022 midterm turnout was slightly up from the 2018 midterms but down more than 21% from the 2020 general election.

While midterm voters typically skew older and Whiter, turnout data from the Georgia secretary of state’s office shows that in 2022, midterm voters in Georgia were older and Whiter than they have been in the past four elections, including the 2018 midterms. Those voters tend to lean Republican. The fact that Warnock not only forced a runoff but also narrowly led Walker in the first round of voting last month suggests he had the support of independent and some Republican voters, political scientists told CNN.

CNN exit polls of Georgia voters in the November election show that the share of independent voters shrank 4 percentage points compared with 2020. However, independent voters were 24% of the electorate, which Warnock won by 11 points, according to CNN exit polls.

Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker out on the campaign trail in Atlanta and Loganville, Georgia.

Georgia is hosting a Senate runoff election on Tuesday between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker, a former football player.

Warnock and Walker first faced each other in the Nov. 8 general election, but neither of them received more than 50% of the vote, forcing a runoff election.

Why it matters: Control of the Senate is not on the line, as Democrats already secured a 50-seat majority, but a victory here for Democrats would give them control of the chamber outright.

The candidates: This is Warnock’s fourth campaign in two years. He first ran in 2020 against appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler to finish former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. That race went to a runoff election in Jan. 2021 which Warnock won. Warnock and Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s wins gave Democrats control of the Senate in 2021.

While Donald Trump’s endorsement helped Walker secure the nomination, the former president mostly stayed on the sidelines throughout the runoff campaign amid concerns he could turn off independents and suburban women, critical voting blocs in the state. Trump did hold a tele-rally for Walker on Monday. Former President Barack Obama, on the other hand, traveled to Georgia to stump for Warnock and cut a new ad for him.

Walker’s campaign has been filled with controversies. In November, CNN’s KFile reported that Walker is getting a homestead tax exemption in Texas this year – something that is supposed to apply to primary residences. Walker registered to vote in Georgia in 2021 and lived in Texas for 20 years. The report has resurfaced questions about Walker’s residency that have dogged him throughout the campaign. 

What votes looked like on Nov. 8: In the November general election, Warnock led with 49.4% of the vote and Walker had 48.5%. The libertarian candidate, Chase Oliver, carried 2.1% of the vote.

Poll and voting information: Any registered voter can vote by mail or vote early in person. Voters did not have to participate in the November general election to participate in the runoff election. Polls opened Tuesday at 7 a.m. ET and close at 7 p.m. ET. The last day to vote early was Friday.