Trump is going to cost Republicans another Georgia Senate seat
Kaylee McGhee White
It looks likely that Georgia’s Senate race between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will head into a December runoff. With 98% of the votes counted, neither candidate has managed to break the 50% needed in Georgia to win outright.
A runoff is bad news for Walker, as my colleague Tiana Lowe explained. Unlike this first time around, he won’t be able to ride Gov. Brian Kemp’s coattails. Warnock will have the political momentum after the Democrats’ stunning victories Tuesday night.
Walker will also have to deal with the fact that former President Donald Trump might be running for president again by the time Georgians head back to the polls in December. And as we learned in 2020, Trump’s prominent presence in the GOP spells defeat in a purple state such as Georgia.
There’s a reason that Kemp, whom Trump has repeatedly insulted and vilified, cruised to victory over his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams on Tuesday night. It’s also the reason Warnock was elected in the first place. Trump is divisive and unpopular among the state’s independents and moderates — crucial votes in a swing state — and his bombastic style is enough to cause middle-of-the-road voters to flee toward any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who promises not to be like him.
If Trump does announce another presidential run next week, as he has said he plans to do, Republicans might as well kiss their shot at a Senate majority goodbye. And they ought to hold him responsible for costing them not just one, and not two, but three Georgia Senate races within two years.
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