As the incumbent, Warnock should have done much better.
Warnock won. That’s all that matters. Walker was a terrible candidate.
Yes. In fairness, Warnock was not your typical incumbent. He won the special election in 2020. So he did not have the organization and legislative history typical for senators competing following complete terms in office. For those other senators, a re-election win is usually by a high single digit or even a
double digit percentage.
So what exactly were the results? Warnock 51.5%, Walker 48.5%. Warnock got @99K more votes out of about 3.6M cast. Not close but not a typicsl blowout either.
Here are the details:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/election-results/2022/georgia-senate-runoff/
Walker very handily won the Georgia Republican primary. Name the Republican he beat in the primary that could have won or done better in losing.
Funny thing is that I knew he would lose the runoff election the moment it was announced. The Democrats would be far more motivated than the Republicans to win the seat. This goes beyond just wanting to increase their majority. Even with an increase to 50 Senate seats, there was no situational change for the Republicans. They would still be the minority party. For Democrats, the 51st seat would free them to pass legislation by simple majority (without assistance from the 4 RINOS) and free them from relying on the VP for tie breaking votes. And keeping “laughing woman” out of public view is a good thing.
So, the Democrats were going to pour it on and the Republican establishment held back. And the Lieutenant Governor’s statement …
Besides, Walker was Trump’s guy.