Georgia runoff results – live: Warnock’s win cements Democrats 2024 blueprint as women celebrate Walker’s loss

Herschel Walker closely competed with Raphael Warnock through the original Senate rate between the two, then the runoff election, despite a string of shocking scandals.

The former NFL player was accused of funding secret abortions and refusing to claim children from outside his marriage.

All the while, just like Donald Trump, the man who endorsed him, Walker managed to win over large numbers of voters and keep the Republican establishment on his side, despite the littany of troubling allegations against him.

Here’s how The Independent covered Mr Walker’s many scandals.

Former football star Herschel Walker conceded defeat and delivered a speech to his supporters, saying running for the Senate was “the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life”.

“So I want to thank all of you as well, because there’s no excuses in life and I’m not going to making excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight. And I think that’s what, that’s what we got to do, because this is much bigger than Herschel Walker,” he said.

“I want you to continue to believe in this country, believe in our elected officials and most of all, stay together,” he said.

“Don’t let anyone separate you. Don’t let anyone tell you that we can’t, because I’m here to tell you we can.”

He concluded his speech by urging his supporters to “always cast your vote no matter whatever’s happening” and to “never, never, never give up.”

Late-stage polls suggested incumbent Raphael Warnock would repeat his general election victory in his runoff against Herschel Walker.

As vote totals roll in from Georgia, political forecaster Dave Wasserman says that the Republican Walker is doing shockingly well, but Warnock seems likely to emerge on top.

“This is going to be a close runoff result, perhaps closer than the Warnock +3 rough polling consensus,” Mr Wasserman, of the Cook Political Report, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “But you’d still much rather be Warnock (D) than Walker (R) right now.”

Georgia Republican slams Herschel Walker as ‘one of the worst candidates in our party’s history’ Georgia’s outgoing lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan has lashed out at Herschel Walker, calling the scandal-plagued Republican candidate backed by former president Donald Trump as one of the worst contenders in the party’s history.

“I’m a conservative. I’m a conservative because I feel like it’s the best way to govern. I’ve been a Republican a lot longer than a lot of folks,” Mr Duncan said to CBS News.

“I think I’ve got kids probably that could articulate the conservative platform better than some of the candidates that Donald Trump and his group supported all across the country.

Read more here:

Following Herschel Walker’s defeat to Raphael Warnock, several of his former partners spoke out to celebrate the election results.

One woman who had a relationship with him in 2006 told The Daily Beast that it spelled a victory for the many women who had come forward to accuse him of encouraging them to have abortions or of being absent from his children’s lives – claims that directly contradicted the stance Mr Walker ran on.

“The Senate race tonight not only vindicates that democracy has won but the women that he betrayed, have won,” she said.

Another woman, who claims that Mr Walker paid for her to have an abortion, said: “Georgia made their choice today. Herschel will not be their voice. Your votes matter. Your voice matters. When we as a country demand more of our leaders, we will be heard!”

During his campaign, Mr Walker sought to paint an image of himself as a family man and vowed to oppose abortion – without any exceptions.

This image was shattered when several women came forward to claim that he had fathered multiple children alongside his son Christian but had kept them secret and played no role in their lives.

Then, in October, one woman who has a child with the football star spoke out to claim that Mr Walker had paid for her to have an abortion. The woman had receipts, a check from Mr Walker and a “get well” card as evidence.

A second woman also came forward alleging he encouraged her to get an abortion. Mr Walker denied the allegations.

Raphael Warnock’s victory also means that Democrats held every Senate seat that was up for re-election this cycle despite general dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden’s performance. Democrats defended incumbents in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire and also flipped an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, when John Fetterman beat television doctor Mehmet Oz.

The 51-49 margin in the Senate also means that Senate committees will no longer be evenly split between Democrats and Republicans and that Democrats will have full subpoena power.

Still, Democrats will likely still be limited in what they can accomplish since Republicans flipped the House of Representatives by a narrow margin. In addition, they do not have enough votes to abolish the filibuster- the 60-vote threshhold - since conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose doing so along with every other Republican Senator.

Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Donald Trump touted himself as a kingmaker for the Republican Party.

Now, with Georgia’s Senate runoff election finally coming to a close as Democrat Sen Raphael Warnock became the projected winner on Tuesday night, a full post-mortem of the former president’s endorsements can be tabulated.

According to Allan Smith, a political reporter with NBC News, of the 16 races for governor, senator and secretary of state held in swing states that Joe Biden won, only two of the one term president’s endorsed candidates took home a victory - Joe Lombardo beat out his Democratic rival in Nevada’s governor race and Ron Johnson won the Senate race in Wisconsin.

With Trump-backed Herschel Walker losing in the Georgia Senate runoff on Tuesday, that makes for a total of 14 defeats in competitive races for the former president.

Herschel Walker ends his time running for Senate as a shadow of the University of Georgia football legend that most Georgians loved. His propensity for nonsensical remarks have become the subject of Saturday Night Live sketches and his race cautionary tale that the political arena differs vastly from Sanford Stadium in Athens. The Associated Press projected that Mr Warnock defeated Mr Walker around 10.30pm ET on Tuesday.

The fact Mr Walker even made it to a runoff is a testament to how underwhelming of a candidate he is. Georgia law stipulates that a candidate must win a majority of the vote and if a candidate doesn’t win a majority in November, they go into a runoff.

But Governor Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans whom Donald Trump loathed for not overturning the 2020 election results, won re-election in November with ease. Mr Kemp easily did away with liberal hero Stacey Abrams with 53.4 per cent of the vote, giving a boost to Mr Walker – though not quite enough.

Mr Walker for his part, underperformed Mr Kemp by 4.9 points and now has lost the runoff race. That alone makes it unlikely that he will have much of a future in GOP politics.

Here, Andrew Feinberg and Erica Garcia postulate what may be next for the GOP football star.

After Sen Raphael Warnock was declared the victor in Tuesday night’s runoff Senate election, the kind words from his fellow Democrats began pouring in.

“Tonight Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected Ultra MAGAism, and most importantly: sent a good man back to the Senate. Here’s to six more years,” said US President Joe Biden.

“Georgia voters said they wanted a Senator who would fight for them—and made it a reality when they reelected @ReverendWarnock to the U.S. Senate. Congratulations, my friend,” tweeted vice president Kamala Harris, surely enthused to have her duties as tie breaker in the Senate reprieved after Sen Warnock’s win tipped the Democrats margins to a 51-49 majority.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed that enthusiasm, tweeting: “Senator Warnock’s well-earned victory is a victory for Georgia, and a victory for democracy and against MAGA Republican extremist policies.”

Republican strategist Matt Whitlock, who previously worked for now-retired Utah Sen Orrin Hatch, said that he believes that Herschel Walker’s loss in Georgia on Tuesday night proves that the traditionally red state is more likely to be in the “blue column” if Donald Trump is on the ballot.

“Should’ve been clear in the 2020 election and runoffs and even clearer when Kemp trounced his primary opponent earlier this year — Georgia has grown impervious to President Trump’s charms. If he’s on a future ballot there I’d count the state in the blue column (again),” tweeted Mr Whitlock.