Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock stood poised Tuesday night to narrowly win Georgia's Senate runoff race against Republican challenger Herschel Walker, giving the incumbent's party a 51-49 advantage in the upper chamber and helping to temper the obstructionist power of right-wing Democrats like West Virginia's Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
"Democrats can do a lot more with 51 Senate seats."
NBC News, Decision Desk HQ, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other outlets projected a Warnock victory as tallied ballots from heavily Democratic metro Atlanta gave the incumbent a late surge of support over Walker, an ex-National Football League star backed by former President Donald Trump.
"I have no doubt that Warnock will win. But 1.5 million people voting for Walker speaks volumes about the work that lies ahead," former NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted. "Buckle up, folks."
"Tonight, the people—young, Black, Brown, and working people—expanded the Senate majority, neutralized the power of Joe Manchin, and defeated yet another fascist," the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement tweeted.
Sunrise executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement:
The truth is, young people win. Warnock's strategy of investing heavily in young voters paid off because we organize, we get out the vote and we consistently vote for Democrats who speak to the issues we face everyday. We know the stakes, from the climate crisis to getting guns out of schools...
This race was dangerously close because of the right's local organizing power. That's why we’re standing up and fighting back. We're focusing the power of our winning movement on building long-term power from the ground up in communities across the country. We won't let up until we win a Green New Deal.
Progressive economist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich congratulated Warnock, "the people of Georgia, and everyone who cares about preserving and strengthening democracy."
The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel noted in her congratulatory tweet that "Democrats can do a lot more with 51 Senate seats."
Taking aim at Walker—a deeply troubled candidate with an admitted history of domestic violence, hypocritcally pressuring multiple women to get abortions, and recently claiming permanent residency in Texas for a tax break—Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) tweeted that "national Republicans handpicked an unqualified and morally bankrupt caricature to run for Senate in Georgia because they thought his race would be enough to make him competitive with Black voters."
"But we know when we're being patronized," Jones added. "Herschel Walker needed to be defeated."
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Brett Wilkins.
Brett Wilkins | Radio Free (2022-12-07T03:11:21+00:00) Warnock Projected to Win Georgia Runoff, Giving Democrats 51-49 Senate Majority. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2022/12/07/warnock-projected-to-win-georgia-runoff-giving-democrats-51-49-senate-majority/
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