Runoff in the USA – Election for contested Senate seat in the US state of Georgia – News

  • Four weeks after the US congressional elections, Georgia is holding a runoff for the last vacant seat in the Senate.
  • In the election, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker are again up against each other.
  • The polling stations were closed on Tuesday evening (local time).

Neither of the two got more than 50 percent of the votes in the first attempt in the congressional election – according to the electoral law in Georgia, a runoff election was therefore necessary. The polling stations opened on Tuesday morning (local time). According to Swiss time, they only close on Wednesday.

According to media reports, 1.8 million people in the state in the southeastern United States cast their ballots early. Since Republican sympathizers are often more skeptical about absentee ballots, these votes are more likely to go to Democrat Warnock.

Can Democrats extend their lead?

The Democrats had already secured a wafer-thin majority in the Senate in the election at the beginning of November. You now have the chance to possibly expand this by one seat. As of now, the Democrats have 50 out of 100 seats in the Senate, giving them a razor-thin lead.

The reason is that Democratic US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also President of the Senate, is allowed to vote in a deadlock. That means even if Georgia Republicans were to win, the Senate would still have a 50-50 balance of power, as it has for the past two years, and Harris would keep the Democrats a slim majority.

Should the Georgia Democrats win, they would have 51 Senate seats and no longer need Harris to tip the scales.

Legend:

Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock is a pastor.

Keystone/AP Photo/John Bazemore

The Georgia campaign drew a lot of attention. The Republicans sent the black ex-football star against the 53-year-old black pastor Raphael Warnock Herschel Walker into the race.

The 60-year-old received support from ex-President Donald Trump during the election campaign and came under heavy pressure over allegations. Two women accused him of pressuring them to have an abortion. Walker came out as a strict opponent of abortion and rejected the allegations.

Walker at the lectern.

Legend:

Herschel Walker at a campaign event on December 5th. The Republican is a former US football star with 12 years in the NFL.

Keystone/AP Photo/Ben Gray

source site-72