The race to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate between Democratic candidate Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is too close to call and will head to a runoff on December 6.
In Georgia, a candidate is required to garner at least 50% of the vote and neither candidate was able to do so.
Warnock brought in 49.4% of the vote, which is slightly above the 48.5% of votes that Walker brought in after 96% of the votes were counted. Neither candidate won the majority because of the third-party option, Chase Olivier, who took 2.1% of the vote.
“Right now we have less than 20,000 total votes still out to be counted. That’s not enough to change the race. So this is headed for a runoff,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced on Wednesday morning.
Warnock, who is the incumbent, won his seat in a runoff in 2020.
The race between Walker and Warnock has been one of the most closely watched in the nation as both parties hope to gain the majority in what was an evenly split Senate. Senate races in Arizona and Nevada are also especially important to Republicans, who need to win two out of the three, to win the majority.
The results in Georgia have emphasized the number of voters who voted for members of both parties. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp easily defeated Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, but Walker has trailed Warnock since votes began coming in.
All eyes will be on Georgia in the first week of December as the runoff may determine which party has the majority in the Senate.
