The election for the Georgia State Senate has gone to a runoff after neither candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, according to NBC. 

Both candidates had sweeping victories in their primaries with Warnock only needing to best one candidate to get a chance to hold his place in the Senate, while Walker easily fought off three other candidates for the Republican nomination. Warnock, a 53-year-old pastor from Savannah, Georgia, first won the position in a 2020 runoff election against the then-incumbent senator, Kelly Loeffler, with a 51 percent to 49 percent majority. This time around, the baptist pastor faced even tougher competition in former NFL running back, Herschel Walker. Walker, a 60-year-old, has no previous political experience, but the Wrightsville, Georgia native had a large gathering of fans from his time playing football. 

In an article by the Washington Post, authors Sabrina Rodriguez and Annie Linskey stated, “When state election officials announced Wednesday that neither Warnock nor Walker had won 50 percent of the vote as required for an outright win and that the race would be decided in a Dec. 6 runoff, Republicans and Democrats began funneling money for ads and field operations into Georgia in an effort to persuade voters to go back to the polls.” 

Leading up to the race, the two candidates had two polar opposite belief systems and their stances on hot-topic issues greatly differed. Some of the major issues that these two fought over before the election were issues regarding abortion, the economy, health care, guns, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and veterans. The most common issue talked about in the race, and justifiably so, was abortion. One of the downfalls of Walker’s campaign, which almost cost him the race, was his supposed hypocritical past on this issue. Throughout his campaign, Walker was staunchly pro-life; however, his past suggested that he had a relationship with a mistress in which he had pressured her into getting an abortion and he had had a previous relationship in which he had actually paid for an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion. Their opposing beliefs led to a large split between the voters helping the candidates both obtain less than the 50 percent majority needed to win outright.

Following the race, Mr. Levy said, “I think the race at this point will not be as intense anymore since control of the Senate is going to be with the Democrats. However, I think both parties will push hard for their candidate, but it will be interesting to see how the Republican turn out will be since the race is no longer critical to their control of the Senate.” 

The runoff election will occur on December 6, and there is no doubt that most, if not all of the American political world will be watching.