Georgia Midterms Elections 2022

The midterm elections for 2022 just ended on November 8th, 2022. Much of the election results in different states were expected like the states in the midwest and how they voted republican, but some states flipped their customary voting ways. In Georgia, there was a governor and senate race, but the senate race gained the most popularity due to its controversy. The governor race consisted of Stacey Abrams (Democrat) and incumbent governor Brain Kemp; Kemp won re-election. The senate race though was incredibly close.

The current senators in Georgia are Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Warnock filled the position of former Senator Johnny Isakson who resigned. Since Isakson was already halfway through his term when he resigned, when Warnock filled his position, he only had to finish half of a term. In this midterm race, the two candidates that ran against each other were Democrat Incumbent Rafael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, the former Georgia football player. This race was very controversial because many people don't think that Walker is fit to run. People said that he has no legislative experience (or really government experience), is incredibly abusive, and is a liar. 

Herschel Walker is known to preach against abortions, yet he was accused of paying for his ex-girlfriend's abortion in 2009, He says that he does not support abortions, but he went against that and paid for an abortion. Walker has also had multiple domestic violence allegations. A common ad from Warnock's team is an interview of a former partner of Walker’s, where the woman said that he put a gun to her temple and threatened to shoot her. Warnock, though, also has an ad against him from Walker's team where there is a video of a former partner of Warnock’s where she is crying and panicking saying that Warnock tried to run her over. Both candidates have domestic violence allegations and have evidence for both sides.

It was just confirmed on November 9th, the day after the elections, that the two candidates will face a runoff due to the 50% rule in Georgia. This rule says that one of the candidates must have over 50% of the votes to win. In this case, the Independent party candidate Chase Oliver held 2% of the vote, meaning that Walker or Warnock had to go over 50%. In a swing state like Georgia, it was really difficult to go over that 50% because the state is so divided and the election came so close in votes. The runoff will most likely happen in December and the people will only be voting for the Republican candidate (Walker) and the Democrat candidate (Warnock) candidates, not the independent candidate. 

By Marco Schittone