(NewsNation) — Decision Desk HQ has called Georgia’s runoff Senate race for incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who garnered 50.46% of the vote as of Tuesday evening, according to unofficial results.
All eyes were on Georgia’s Senate race heading into last month’s election. At that time, the race’s outcome might have decided whether Democrats or Republicans would control the Senate.
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Democrats retained that control early last month, but both parties have maintained their watch of the neck-and-neck race between Warnock and former football star Herschel Walker.
On one hand, another Democratic win would reinforce the party’s thin majority in the Senate, while a Republican loss could come back to haunt former President Donald Trump, who encouraged Walker to run.
The Senate race was too close to call after the November midterm election. Neither candidate earned the majority of votes necessary under Georgia’s voting system, and the race was extended to Tuesday for a runoff election.
Warnock originally won his seat in a runoff in 2021.
Tuesday’s election made for the most expensive Senate race this cycle, with total spending surpassing $400 million, according to Open Secrets.
Warnock raised more than Walker and far outspent the Republican, tapping more than $126 million of his campaign funds. That’s compared to the $48.5 million Walker spent, according to the most recent data available from Open Secrets.
Neither campaign was without controversy.
Earlier this year The Daily Beast reported that a woman alleged Walker reimbursed her for an abortion in 2009. The outlet said it reviewed a receipt and a get-well-soon card from Walker, who has denied the allegation and threatened to sue the news outlet.
The New York Times reported Walker pressured the same woman to have a second abortion two years later, and the two broke up when she refused to terminate that pregnancy.
Then in October a second woman came forward with allegations that she had had a six-year relationship with Walker, whom she said pressured her to have an abortion, paid for the procedure and drove her to the clinic.
Warnock faced accusations of trying to evict chronically homeless residents of a low-income housing complex owned by his church. Warnock maintained that the allegations were false. When asked about personal integrity during a debate, he did not directly answer multiple questions about the issue.
