2022 United States Senate election in Georgia

← 2020–21 (special) November 8, 2022 (first round) December 6, 2022 (runoff) 2028 →

Candidate Raphael Warnock Herschel Walker Party Democratic Republican First round 1,946,117 49.44% 1,908,442 48.49% Runoff 1,820,633 51.40% 1,721,244 48.60%

First round county results First round congressional district results General precinct results Runoff county results Runoff congressional district results Runoff precinct results Warnock:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90% Walker:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90%

U.S. senator before election Raphael Warnock Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock Democratic

The2022 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of theU.S. Senate to represent the state ofGeorgia. IncumbentDemocratic senatorRaphael Warnock won his first full term in office, defeatingRepublican former football playerHerschel Walker. Under Georgia'stwo-round system, Warnock was re-elected in arunoff election on December 6 after neither candidate received over 50% of the vote on November 8.^[1] Warnock's win was the only statewide victory for Democrats in Georgia in 2022.

Warnock, who won a shortened term to the seat in a2020–21 special election, was nominated in the May 24 primary for a full term with minimal opposition. Walker, who was endorsed by former presidentDonald Trump and Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell, won the Republican nomination with 68% of the vote. It was the first U.S. Senate election in Georgia history and among five nationwide since the passage of theSeventeenth Amendment in 1913 in which both major party nominees were Black.^[2][3][a]

In the November 8 election, Warnock received 49.4% of the vote and Walker received 48.5%, triggering the December 6 runoff.^[4] Warnock defeated Walker by a 2.8% margin in the runoff and became the first African-American from Georgia elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate, and the first Democrat to win a full term at this seat sinceWyche Fowler in1986. Warnock's victory also secured an outright majority forSenate Democrats for the first time since 2015, with a net gain of one seat in the2022 midterms.^[5][6] This was the first time since 1998 that Georgia voted for different parties for U.S. senator and governor in the same election cycle. It was the third-closest Senate election of the 2022 midterms afterNevada andWisconsin. Walker would later go on to be nominated asU.S. ambassador to the Bahamas following Trump's victory in the2024 presidential election.^[7]

Warnock easily won renomination in the Democratic primary over Tamara Johnson-Shealey, a left-wing activist and businesswoman, who ran a low-profile campaign focused aroundreparations for slavery.^[8][9]

• Raphael Warnock, incumbent U.S. Senator^[10]

• Tamara Johnson-Shealey,DeKalb County businesswoman andperennial candidate^[11]

• Herschel Walker, formerrunning back for theGeorgia Bulldogs, formerprofessional football player, and former co-chair of thePresident's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and CEO ofRenaissance Man Food Services^[30]

• Gary Black, formerAgriculture Commissioner of Georgia^[31]
• Josh Clark, formerstate representative and businessman^[32]
• Kelvin King,U.S. Air Force veteran, businessman, and founder of Osprey Management^[33][34]
• Jonathan McColumn, formerU.S. Army Special Forcesbrigadier general and pastor^[11]
• Latham Saddler, former director of intelligence programs on theNational Security Council and formerNavy SEAL officer^[33]

• Christopher M. Carr,Attorney General of Georgia(ran for re-election)^[33]
• Buddy Carter,U.S. Representative forGeorgia's 1st congressional district(ran for re-election; endorsed Walker)^[35][36]
• Doug Collins, formerU.S. Representative forGeorgia's 9th congressional district and candidate for the U.S. Senate in2020^[37][38]
• Geoff Duncan, formerLieutenant Governor of Georgia and formerstate representative^[39][40]
• Randy Evans, formerU.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg^[39][41](endorsed Walker)
• Drew Ferguson,U.S. Representative forGeorgia's 3rd congressional district(ran for re-election)^[42]
• Vernon Jones, former Democraticstate representative and CEO ofDeKalb County(ran for the U.S. House in GA-10)^[43]
• Brian Kemp,Governor of Georgia(ran for re-election)^[44]
• Jack Kingston, formerU.S. Representative forGeorgia's 1st congressional district^[33]
• Kelly Loeffler, former U.S. Senator^[45](endorsed Walker)
• Harold Melton, former chief justice ofGeorgia Supreme Court^[46][47]
• David Perdue, former U.S. Senator^[48][49][50](initially filed paperwork;ran for Governor)^[51]
• David Ralston,Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives^[52]

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• Chase Oliver, chair of the Atlanta Libertarian Party, customer service specialist, and candidate forGeorgia's 5th congressional district in the2020 House of Representatives special election.^[88][89] Oliver was the first openly gay Senate candidate in Georgia.^[90]

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Despite a stronggubernatorial performance by incumbent governorBrian Kemp in his reelection bid, and leading the polls since October, Walker ended up one point behind Warnock and was forced into a runoff.Ticket splitting was evident, as Walker underperformed Brian Kemp by 203,130 votes, while Warnock did 132,444 votes better than Abrams.^[237]

Walker won nine of 14 congressional districts.^[240]

Voter demographic data for 2022 was collected byCNN. The voter survey is based onexit polls completed by voters in person as well as by phone.^[241] One key to Warnock's victory was winning voters withgraduate degrees 60-38%, as he lost all other educational groups. Warnock also won voters under 50 by large margins, offsetting his losses among older voters.

Following the projection of incumbent Democratic senatorCatherine Cortez Masto's victory inNevada, it became clear that, unlike in the previous cycle, the results of the Georgia runoff would not determine control of the United States Senate. With all Democratic incumbents besides Warnock winning re-election and DemocratJohn Fetterman flipping an open seat inPennsylvania that had been held by retiring RepublicanPat Toomey, Democrats held their majority in the Senate.^[v][242] Nevertheless, national Democrats and Republicans began spending on advertising and volunteer mobilization efforts as soon as it became apparent that a runoff election would be necessary.^[243] Historically, runoff elections in Georgia have favored Republicans as turnout decreased disproportionately amongst Democratic voters, but in 2021, with Senate control to be determined, turnout was historically high, and Democrats won both races.^[244] Prior to the runoff, elections analysts questioned whether Georgia voters would turn out in such high numbers again and tried to determine which candidate's coalition of supporters would be more likely to turn out.^[245] This was the fifth runoff in the state's history.

The early vote window was shorter in 2022 than in 2021 due to Georgia'sElection Integrity Act of 2021, which reduced the gap between general and runoff elections from nine to four weeks.^[246] State officials also said that there could be no weekend early voting: Georgia state law bars early voting from taking place the Saturday immediately before an election (December 3), and Georgia Secretary of StateBrad Raffensperger argued that early voting also could not take place the next preceding Saturday (November 26), as it fell two days afterThanksgiving (November 24) and the day after a Georgia state holiday established to commemorateConfederate generalRobert E. Lee's birthday (November 25).^[w][249] On Friday, November 18, aFulton County Superior Court judge ruled that, despite the holidays, county boards of election could legally offer early voting on Saturday, November 26;^[250] that decision was upheld by theGeorgia Court of Appeals on Monday, November 21,^[251] and by theSupreme Court of Georgia on Wednesday, November 23.^[252] Ultimately, 27 ofGeorgia's 159 counties chose to offer early voting on Saturday,^[253] including the state's four largest counties,Fulton,Gwinnett,Cobb, andDeKalb.^[254]

While Democrats retained control of the Senate during the118th Congress regardless of the outcome of the Georgia runoff, Warnock's victory affected the functioning of that majority. During the117th Congress, Senate Democrats made power-sharing agreements with Republicans, such as evenly dividing committee memberships between the two parties and giving Republicans greater ability to delay judicial appointments; with Warnock's win, Democrats attained an outright 51–49 majority,^[1] allowing them to take full control of Senate committees and expedite judicial confirmations.^[255] Looking beyond the 118th Congress, many analysts had noted that the outcome of this race would affect Democrats' prospects in the2024 U.S. Senate elections. Election forecasters had noted that Democrats held a number of seats up for election in 2024 which would be difficult for the party to defend,^[x] and therefore that holding Georgia's seat bolstered the party's chances to maintain Senate control going forward.^{[255][256][257]}

According toRon Brownstein ofCNN in 2023, Warnock won independent voters by double-digit margins, which contributed to Walker's defeat.^[258]

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