Dec. 1, 2022 coverage of the Georgia runoff election

Former President Barack Obama described GOP nominee Herschel Walker as a comically unserious candidate unfit to represent Georgia on Capitol Hill.

In his second visit to Atlanta during the campaign – having previously stumped for Warnock ahead of the Nov. 8 election – Obama just a few days ahead of the run-off doubled down on his past criticism and added a few new flourishes. 

 For those who had forgotten his past remarks, Obama said Walker provided further evidence of his lack of credentials “every time he opens his mouth.”

The former president’s visit comes days before the end of a condensed run-off campaign of only four weeks, down from the nine the state previously mandated before the passage of a controversial voting law in 2021. Obama urged the audience not to become complacent, alternately praising the Democrat’s character and lampooning Walker’s assorted controversies and bizarre campaign trail rhetoric. 

Obama’s presence, too, marked a stark difference between the two campaigns.

While Democrats were able to call on Obama, a singularly popular figure within their party, to energize voters, the most popular Republican nationally, former President Donald Trump, has stayed away for fear of alienating swing voters. (Democrats, though, have also been cautious in choosing surrogates: President Joe Biden has not appeared in Georgia.) 

“Mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia, like whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf,” Obama joked. “This was a debate that, I must confess, I once had myself… when I was seven.”

The riff followed a puzzling sidebar from Walker during a rally a few weeks ago, when the Republican recounted having recently seen a movie that he said was called “Fright Night, Freak Night, or some type of night.”

 “I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that,” Walker said, before adding: “So I don’t want to be a vampire anymore. I want to be a werewolf.”

 Obama had clearly become familiar with the video, which Warnock has replayed in part in recent campaign ads.

“In case you were wondering, Mr. Walker decided he wanted to be a werewolf. Which is great. As far as I’m concerned, he can be anything he wants to be. Except for a United States senator,” Obama said, before continuing with another story about Walker’s past claim of having let Obama beat him at basketball only to admit, later, that the two had never met.

In a less bombastic portion of his speech, Obama pushed back against any suggestion that the Georgia Senate race had diminished in importance after Democrats clinched a Senate majority last month.

 “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 of years from now when you’ve got another election and the Senate map is going to be tilted in the favor of Republicans. And it’ll help prevent Republicans from getting a filibuster-proof majority that could allow them to do things like passing a federal abortion ban.”

Former President Barack Obama urged supporters of Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock to avoid complacency ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election.

The former president said that he was encouraged by early voter turnout numbers, but said that more needs to be done to secure Warnock’s chances, noting that early voting in the state ends Friday.

“Now I know a lot of folks have been voting early over the last few days, that is a good thing. That is an encouraging thing. But — you knew there was a but —plenty of folks haven’t voted yet. Tomorrow is the last day for early voting and then we need to get people out to the polls on Tuesday, which means we still got work to do,” Obama said at a rally with Warnock in Atlanta.

More than 1.1 million votes have been cast so far, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office. The state has had several days with historically high early voting numbers.

Former President Barack Obama is holding a rally with Sen. Raphael Warnock tonight in Atlanta and is addressing his supporters.

What’s at stake in the runoff: Even with control of the Senate already secured, the stakes are high as Democrats seek to secure a majority outright instead of the power-sharing agreement currently in place.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is urging his supporters to continue to turn out to the polls ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff election, saying “it’s time to raise your voice.”

More than 1.1 million votes have been cast so far, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office. The state has had several days with historically high early voting numbers.

But Warnock said now is not the time to let up, urging voters to cast their ballot if they haven’t already.

“We got to keep our foot on the gas all the way to victory,” he said at a rally Thursday in the final sprint of the campaign.

Warnock took a stab at his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, saying, “This race is about character and competence” — a common attack on his opponent he has made throughout his campaign.

“I know we have political differences. That’s what part of what makes this country a great country,” he said, adding, “This is not about Republican and Democrat. This is not about right and left. This is about the difference between right and wrong.”

“I believe in my soul that Georgia knows that Georgia is better than Herschel Walker,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is addressing supporters at a rally in Atlanta right now. Former President Barack Obama is also expected to speak at the event.

Warnock thanked his supporters for turning out on Election Day and allowing him to finish ahead of GOP opponent Hershel Walker. But he added that the pressure is still on.

“Here’s the thing. Even though you made sure my campaign finished first, that doesn’t matter if you don’t dig even deeper, work even harder, build a movement that’s even stronger and deliver the victory for the people of Georgia on Dec. 6. Are you ready to win this election? It’s time to vote,” he said.

What’s at stake in the runoff: Even with control of the Senate already secured, the stakes are high as Democrats seek to secure a majority outright instead of the power-sharing agreement currently in place.

Arriving at the White House for the administration’s State Dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, White House senior adviser for Public Engagement and former Atlanta mayor, said she was optimistic about Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s chances in Tuesday’s runoff election.

“I think it’s going to be a great night in Georgia on Tuesday, and I’m not saying that as a Bulldogs fan,” Lance-Bottoms said, adding she found early vote totals “very encouraging.” 

More than 1 million Georgians have voted early — absentee or in-person – so far.

But Lance-Bottoms wouldn’t say if President Joe Biden intends to visit the state ahead of election day Tuesday.

“I don’t know the answer to that — I think the President will go wherever he’s wanted and needed, and I know that — we know that we have a great senator in Georgia, so we’re excited,” she said.

More than 1 million Georgians have voted early (absentee or in-person) ahead of Tuesday’s Senate runoff election. The compact nature of the early voting period for the runoff makes it difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison with what occurred during the November general election.

Still, there are a number of notable trends that suggest an upside for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in his race against Republican Herschel Walker. This doesn’t mean Warnock is definitely going to win, but the data indicates you’d rather be Warnock than Walker right now.

When examining early voting, keep in mind we do not know how people are voting in the runoff. We know how voters as a group cast ballots in the general election. Groups that were more favorable for Warnock seem to be voting in larger numbers now compared with the general election when a similar number of early ballots were cast.

Remember too that Warnock got more votes than Walker in November, even though both failed to take a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff. This means Walker needs to gain more (or lose fewer) voters than Warnock in order to win.

Perhaps the best way to see if Walker voters are turning out in larger numbers is to look at race and age. Warnock won Black voters 90% to 8% in November’s general election. Walker won White voters 70% to 28%.

So far in early voting, Black voters make up a little more than 33% of the electorate, while White voters account for 54%. At a roughly similar point in the general election based on the number of early votes cast, about 31% of voters were Black and about 57% were White.

This may seem like a small difference, but given the large partisan gap between Black and White voters, it suggests that those who have gone to the polls so far are more Democratic than at a similar point in the general election.

I should note that a number of Democratic counties opened up early in-person voting sooner than Republican-leaning counties. That said, voters in all Georgia counties have been able to cast a ballot for a number of days now, and the racial voting gap between the general election and runoff has not gone away.

Keep reading here.

While some Georgia counties held early voting last week or over the weekend, every county is required to hold early voting Monday through Friday of this week. The condensed time frame leading up to the runoff means there are fewer days of early voting than there were before the general election.

Both candidates are still ramping up to Election Day as early votes continue to come in. For Warnock, that means another visit from former President Barack Obama, who will be in Atlanta tonight to campaign for him. The senator was joined on the stump by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker over the weekend and welcomed musician Dave Matthews to a Monday night rally.

On Tuesday, Walker welcomed Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and Oklahoma Sen.-elect Markwayne Mullin. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have also been out in force for Walker.

The stakes are such that even the parties’ most powerful figures are making tough decisions in order to help their side gain any advantage – or, in the cases of President Joe Biden and former President Trump – be careful to do no harm.

Trump and Biden have both steered clear of Georgia, where neither is popular with those decisive swing voters, during the campaign. Trump, who recruited Walker to run and has been a consistent supporter, will not appear in the state ahead of the Dec. 6 election, a person close to Walker confirmed to CNN.

Many Republicans also blame Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election in Georgia for their defeat in the January 2021 runoffs, when then-GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler lost to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Warnock, respectively.

Republicans have spent much of the race hammering Warnock over his record of consistently voting for the president’s legislative agenda. Warnock, in turn, has sought to highlight his bipartisan work in the Senate and has steadfastly kept his distance from any potentially divisive figures in his party.

America is heading for a year-end political collision that will set the stage for showdowns between the new Republican-led House and the Democrats who still wield power in the Senate and White House. The Georgia Senate runoff is one of the key end-of-year political showdowns.

Former President Barack Obama, who was the most effective Democratic messenger in the midterms, is due to campaign for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Atlanta tonight at a 6:15 p.m. ET rally.

Republican challenger Herschel Walker’s chances could depend on whether he is able to win over a significant block of Republican voters who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him despite backing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Walker’s problem is that he’s a protégé of former President Donald Trump, from whom Kemp kept a good distance.

After Trump announced his 2024 campaign days after the midterms, Warnock and his supporters started framing the runoff as the first chance for Democrats to stop Trump’s bid to return to the White House. Their argument recalled complaints by many Republicans that Trump’s intervention in two 2020 Senate runoffs in Georgia cost the GOP the chance to control the Senate.

This might all be about one seat. But holding the Senate 51-49 rather than 50-50 would be huge for Democrats because it would insulate them from the incapacitation of one of their members and could diminish the power of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has been a stubborn brake on President Joe Biden’s aspirations for two years.

Read about the other end-of-year political showdowns here.

With just days to go before Georgia’s Senate runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, heavy hitters and big dollars from both national parties are pouring into the state for a race that will determine the balance of power in the Democratic-controlled Senate next year.

If the Republican 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 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 Biden nominees in a more 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 Monday.

“Having an evenly divided Senate means that you get equal representation on committees,” Thune said. “We’ve been successfully able to bottle up some bad nominees at the committee level. So (the Georgia race has) got real consequences.”

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.

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, facing renewed and growing questions about his residency in the final week of the runoff campaign, described himself during a campaign speech in January as living in Texas and said he decided to run for Georgia’s Senate seat while at his Texas “home,” according to a CNN KFile review of his campaign speeches.

Georgia Democrats have called for an investigation by state officials into Walker’s residency after CNN’s KFile reported last week that Walker was getting a tax break in Texas intended for a primary residence, possibly running afoul of Texas tax law and some rules for establishing Georgia residency for voting and running for office.

“I live in Texas,” Walker said in January of this year, when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans. Walker was criticizing Democrats for not visiting the border when he made the comments. “I went down to the border off and on sometimes,” he said.

Earlier in the speech, Walker said he decided to run for Georgia’s Senate seat while at his Texas home after seeing the country divided.

“Everyone asks me, why did I decide to run for a Senate seat? Because to be honest with you, this is never something I ever, ever, ever thought in my life I’d ever do,” said Walker. “And that’s the honest truth. As I was sitting in my home in Texas, I was sitting in my home in Texas, and I was seeing what was going on in this country. I was seeing what was going on in this country with how they were trying to divide people.”

The Georgia Republican is heading into a runoff election against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on December 6. Walker and his campaign have so far not commented to CNN or others on the reporting of the tax break or questions about his residency.

Last month, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that Georgia authorities have been urged in a complaint to investigate Walker’s residency. Georgia Democrats in a statement called for an immediate investigation of Walker’s residency, and Congresswoman Nikema Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, also asked authorities to see if Walker lied about living in Georgia.

“The Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Georgia Attorney General’s office must immediately investigate whether Herschel Walker lied about being a Georgia resident,” Williams said.

Read more here.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not be appearing alongside Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker in Georgia on Thursday due to a family emergency, according to Walker campaign representative Will Hampson.

Pompeo was expected to attend campaign events during Walker’s bus tour.

CNN reported earlier this week that former President Donald Trump will not appear in Georgia to campaign for Walker ahead to the state’s Dec. 6 runoff, according to a person close to the Republican Senate candidate, opting instead to phone in for a remote rally with supporters some day before the election.

CNN’s Mike Warren and Kristen Holmes contributed reporting to this post.

Waves of bitter attack ads are dominating Georgia’s airwaves as the runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker enters its final stretch.  

Even with control of the Senate already secured, the stakes are high as Democrats seek to secure a majority outright instead of the power-sharing agreement currently in place. That has led to candidates and allied outside groups waging a fierce battle for the final seat, spending millions of dollars, launching personal attacks and leaning into divisive debates as the December 6 runoff approaches.

“Is it just me or does it feel like we’ve been here before? The whole country’s finished voting, and only us left,” Warnock observes in a new ad, featuring a familiar beagle — a commentary on the last runoff in Georgia, from which he emerged victorious. He goes on to say that Walker “repeats the same lies, trying to distract from what we all know is true about him.” 

Walker, meanwhile, launched a new spot over Thanksgiving week that features a college athlete criticizing participation policies for transgender athletes.

“Warnock’s afraid to stand up for female athletes,” Walker says in the ad. 

Outside groups have also ratcheted up the intensity of the attacks. Georgia Honor, a Democratic super PAC, launched an ad highlighting domestic abuse allegations against Walker and reporting that Walker paid for a woman’s abortion.  

Georgia Honor also went up with an ad focused on abortion, a winning issue for Democrats in the midterms.

Meanwhile, Senate Leadership Fund, a top Republican super PAC, has fired back at Warnock, launching an ad that claims “a low income apartment building tied to Senator Raphael Warnock is filing eviction notices against residents.” The ad also criticizes Warnock and President Joe Biden for “reckless spending” that “keeps driving up inflation.” 

How the numbers break down: Senate Leadership Fund announced plans to spend over $14 million on the runoff, helping Walker mitigate an otherwise significant advertising gap with Warnock and his Democratic allies. So far, the group has spent about $11.5 million.   

Overall, candidates and groups from both parties have combined to spend $57.7 million on the runoff, including future reservations through December 6, according to AdImpact data. Democrats are outspending Republicans by about $37.4 million to $20.2 million so far.  

Warnock is the top advertiser, at about $18.1 million, while Herschel Walker has spent about $6.4 million.

Democrats clinched 50 seats in the Senate, but the stakes remain high for Georgia’s Dec. 6 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.

Here’s an updated look at ad spending totals in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff — including spending since Nov. 9, the day after the midterms, and future reservations through Dec. 6, the day of the runoff:

Total ad spending is up to more than $77 million, and Democrats have spent more than twice as much as Republicans, $52.9 million to $24.2 million. 

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, at $24.8 million, has spent more on advertising alone than all GOP advertisers combined, while Georgia Honor, funded by a top Democratic super PAC, has spent an additional $21.2 million on his behalf.

The top GOP advertiser is the McConnell-aligned super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, which has spent about $11.6 million so far (the group had announced plans to spend $14 million total on the race). Republican candidate Herschel Walker, meanwhile, has spent about $9.7 million on advertising so far.

Warnock, who enjoyed a fundraising surge of over $50 million in the most recent FEC reporting period, has continued to pump out new advertisements, with 8 new spots so far this week. Yesterday, his campaign released a 60-second ad featuring former President Obama — who is set to campaign with Warnock in Georgia today — stumping for the incumbent Democrat. “You can trust leaders who are driven by something bigger than politics. That’s why you need to re-elect my friend and your senator, Reverend Raphael Warnock,” Obama says in the spot.

And in another new ad released by Warnock’s campaign Thursday morning, the Georgia senator reminisces about his father’s work ethic, saying, “The last few years have exhausted us all. But we’re moving forward in ways big and small.”

Walker and his GOP allies, meanwhile, have launched comparatively few new ads this week — one from Walker and one from Senate Leadership Fund. Walker’s campaign aired a new TV spot Tuesday morning that features clips from a police interview with Sen. Raphael Warnock’s ex-wife, who accused him of running over her foot with his car in March of 2020, though no charges were filed. “Find out who Reverend Warnock really is,” the ad’s narrator says. 

Meanwhile SLF’s new spot features Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who ran ahead of Walker in the general election, winning reelection comfortably. Kemp touts Walker’s candidacy, saying, “families are struggling because of Biden’s inflation in Washington won’t change unless we make them.” He continues, “That’s why I’m backing Herschel.”

More than 1.1 million votes have been cast in Georgia ahead of next week’s Senate runoff election, according to data from the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

Early in-person voting in the state crossed the 1 million mark with more than 280,000 voters going to the polls on Wednesday.

Georgia has had several days this week with historically high early voting numbers, but overall, with only two more days of early in-person voting, the state is on pace to have far fewer pre-election voters than in the 2021 runoff, when more than 3.1 million Georgians voted by mail or in person before Election Day.

This runoff, with its compressed timeframe, has had far fewer days of early voting than either the 2021 runoff or last month’s general election.

An ex-girlfriend of Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia, has come forward in The Daily Beast to allege that the former football star was violent and threatening toward her during an incident that took place in 2005.

Cheryl Parsa, a Dallas resident, told the news outlet she had a five-year relationship with Walker from 2004 to 2009. She alleges that in 2005, after she found Walker with another woman, he got angry, and, according to her account, placed his hands on her chest and neck and also swung his fist at her. She told The Daily Beast that she thought he was “going to beat me” and that she fled.

CNN has reached out to Parsa and Walker’s campaign for comment.

Parsa’s account, which she is making for the first time on the record, is just the latest in a string of past allegations made against Walker of violent and threatening behavior that have now resurfaced during his Senate campaign. Some of the allegations have been the basis for attack ads against Walker by Democrats.

CNN reported last year that a Texas woman had told police in 2002 that Walker had threatened and stalked her. Walker has also been accused by his ex-wife and another ex-girlfriend of making threats, and they told authorities that Walker had threatened to shoot them in the head. Walker’s ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, told CNN in a 2008 interview that Walker had held a razor to her throat, and at one point, “he held [a] gun to my temple and said he was going to blow my brains out.”

When faced with past allegations of violence, Walker’s campaign, and Walker himself, have often pointed to his public struggle with mental health. Walker has publicly discussed his diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder, which was previously known as multiple personality disorder.

The Daily Beast said it spoke to a person close to Parsa who said Parsa told the person about the incident at the time.

The Daily Beast said Parsa also provided a book-length manuscript detailing her relationship with Walker based on her contemporaneous notes and journal entries, along with cards, business plans, gifts and photos of her and Walker together to corroborate their romantic relationship. The outlet also said it spoke to four people close to Parsa who corroborated the relationship, one of whom the publication described as “one of Walker’s former romantic partners.”

Walker is facing Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the Georgia Senate runoff on Tuesday. The race advanced to the runoff after neither candidate got more than 50% of the vote in the November general election.

Former President Donald Trump will not appear in Georgia to campaign for Herschel Walker ahead to the state’s Dec. 6 runoff, a person close to the Republican Senate candidate told CNN, opting instead to phone in for a remote rally with supporters some day before the election.

Trump was Walker’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporter for the Senate nomination, and his backing effectively cleared the GOP field for the former Georgia Bulldog football star. Republican operatives, both in the state and nationwide, had expressed concerns that a visit from Trump — who earlier this month declared his candidacy for the White House in 2024 — would hurt Walker’s effort to defeat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Warnock, a Democrat, won his seat in a runoff in 2021 following Trump’s loss in the presidential election in Georgia. Many Republicans blame Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election in Georgia for their defeat in the January 2021 runoffs. And Trump’s own political team decided that given his recent track record in Georgia, he wouldn’t travel there in the final days of the 2022 midterms.

Some Republican operatives in Georgia were hopeful that another potential White House hopeful, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, would make an appearance, but the person close to Walker said DeSantis is not going to campaign for him either. 

Other GOP operatives in Georgia told CNN they had raised the point that a visit from the popular Florida governor might prompt Trump to travel to the state as well. 

The New York Times first reported that Trump would not be in Georgia before the runoff.

The compressed timeframe of Georgia’s Senate runoff has juiced single-day turnout across the state as the race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker enters the homestretch.

The Secretary of State’s Office announced that 300,588 voters had early voted on Tuesday. While Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state’s chief operating officer, had said late Tuesday that early voting that day had broken Monday’s record, official numbers from the office put the day’s total at slightly below Monday’s single-day record of 303,166.

Younger voters are making a particularly impressive showing, with those aged 50 or under accounting for about a quarter of the vote so far, according to official figures Wednesday morning. Overall, more than 830,000 votes have been cast.

“We’re the belle of the ball,” Sterling told “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday when asked about the enthusiasm surrounding the race. “Every political dollar in America is coming here right now both on the left and the right.”

The surge to the polls underscores the importance of the last major undecided contest of the 2022 midterm elections. A victory for Warnock, who won more votes earlier this month but fell short of a clinching majority, would give Democrats a clean Senate majority – one that doesn’t rely on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote and allows Majority Leader Chuck Schumer more control of key committees and some slack in potentially divisive judicial and administrative confirmation fights.

And the GOP knows it. Republicans appearing with Walker on Tuesday in Greensboro stressed the importance of winning a 50th Senate seat – as they tried to juice enthusiasm despite their hopes of reclaiming the majority being dashed earlier this month.

“What a lot of people forgot about is the committees,” said Oklahoma Sen.-elect Markwayne Mullin. “This vote December 6 for Herschel Walker, it still allows us to hold up all those appointments.”

Mullin echoed Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, who also spoke at the same rally and urged supporters to get to the polls and vote early.

“Herschel is our MVP. He will be our 50th vote in the Senate. He gets us the tie. He makes it so we can stop this disastrous Biden agenda,” McDaniel said.

Warnock and Democrats have been less forward about the potential implications of his reelection after he won a special election last year. But the party is going all-in to secure him a first full term. Former President Barack Obama is returning to Georgia on Thursday for a rally and former first lady Michelle Obama has now lent her voice to a pair of robocalls urging Georgians to vote.