Midterm Finale: Herschel Walker Fumbles in Georgia

On Tuesday night, Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock held off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election that ended with the GOP once again going down in defeat. Warnock extended his lead since the midterm general election back on Nov. 8 while Walker’s margin barely moved despite efforts to unite Republican voters around his campaign.

Perhaps the real lesson here is one on candidate quality and it extends well beyond the state of Georgia. There were many winnable races in 2022 that Republicans simply fumbled out of the gate. There are many scapegoats from former President Donald Trump to Sen. Mitch McConnell, among others. The real issue is that high-stakes elections for the United States Senate shouldn’t be taken so lightly.

Even in Ohio, where Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance managed to win, he did so by running nearly 14 points behind Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, the Republican at the top of the ticket.

As it stands now, Democrats will have 51 Senate seats which merely enforces their majority and means Vice President Kamala Harris will have a very open schedule this year:

Democratic US Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia beat back a challenge from Republican and former NFL star Herschel Walker to win Tuesday’s runoff election for Senate.

Warnock, 53, defeated his Republican rival, 60, to score a full six-year term after winning a special election in January 2021 — with Tuesday’s victory expanding the Dems’ control of the Senate to 51-49.

With the race called Tuesday night by The Associated Press, Warnock held a slim 51.2% to 48.8% lead with 98% of the vote counted.

Both parties went all-in on this race with even former President Barack Obama coming out to endorse and campaign for Warnock. On the Walker side, every major GOP name lined up to back the Heisman Trophy winner including an endorsement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and backing from recently re-election Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

In the end, it didn’t matter, voters didn’t trust Walker and no amount of endorsements or money was going to change the perception that had built up over the past several months. There was no magical overnight love for Walker that materialized after his first loss on Nov. 8 but the GOP was stuck with him.

Republicans won every other statewide race in Georgia this year aside from Walker’s Senate seat, there really was no excuse for missing the clean sweep in the Peach State. Voters were clearly open to conservative ideas and pro-life candidates, but Walker never quite connected.

What does this mean going forward for the GOP? It’s a familiar lesson and one that has to be learned every other election cycle or so. Candidates that win primaries solely on their association with someone else end up doing badly in the general election. In this case, Walker was heavily promoted by former President Donald Trump and that association, coupled with his own stumbles, ended up capping Walker’s support around 48 to 49% in a state that’s typically very conservative.

There was a portion of Republicans, perhaps anywhere from 5-10%, who voted for Brian Kemp, and the rest of the Republican ticket statewide, but wouldn’t vote for Walker. In a swing state like Georgia, it’s not enough to assume that a popular top-line candidate will carry every candidate down the ticket.

With the midterms now firmly behind us, let’s get on with the presidential show.