Senator Raphael Warnock is the projected winner of the 2022 Georgia Senate runoff

Trail­blaz­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Raphael Warnock of Geor­gia has pre­vailed over Repub­li­can chal­lenger Her­schel Walk­er in a runoff elec­tion and will return to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. for a six-year term rep­re­sent­ing the Peach State, giv­ing Democ­rats a fifty-one vote major­i­ty in the Sen­ate for the 118th Congress.

With 96.03% of the esti­mat­ed vote count­ed, Warnock had a 57,240 vote lead over Walk­er, a for­mer grid­iron star who dis­graced him­self on the cam­paign trail with a series of inco­her­ent, ridicu­lous state­ments. Warnock had a total of 1,752,384 votes — 50.8%, while Walk­er had 1,695,144 votes — 49.2%.

Rev­erend Warnock­’s pro­ject­ed hard-fought vic­to­ry (which still must be con­firmed by offi­cial returns) brings the 2022 midterm cycle to a close on a high note for Democ­rats. They have now suc­ceed­ed in defend­ing every sin­gle incum­bent who was up in 2022, from Mag­gie Has­san in New Hamp­shire to Cather­ine Cortez Mas­to in Neva­da and Mark Kel­ly in Ari­zona to Warnock in Georgia.

Not since 1934 has the pres­i­den­t’s par­ty defend­ed every incum­bent sen­a­tor’s seat in a midterm elec­tion. It’s a tru­ly his­toric accomplishment.

Until 2020, when Warnock first won along with seat­mate Jon Ossoff (who did not face vot­ers this year because he was elect­ed to a full six-year term), Geor­gia had not elect­ed a Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date to the Unit­ed States Sen­ate in two decades.

Before them, the last Demo­c­rat to win in the Peach State was the unfaith­ful Zell Miller, elect­ed in 2000 to replace Repub­li­can Paul Coverdell. Miller would mem­o­rably endorse George W. Bush and attack his own par­ty at the 2004 Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion; he was suc­ceed­ed by Repub­li­can John­ny Isakson.

The last sit­ting Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tor to win con­sec­u­tive elec­tions in Geor­gia was the leg­endary Sam Nunn, who served from Novem­ber 8th, 1972 – until Jan­u­ary 3rd, 1997. Nunn was suc­ceed­ed by anoth­er Demo­c­rat, Max Cle­land, who could­n’t hang on against the odi­ous Sax­by Cham­b­liss twen­ty years ago.

The seat once held by Nunn and Cle­land is now held by Ossoff, while Rev­erend Warnock holds the oth­er seat — one that has often alter­nat­ed between Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can rep­re­sen­ta­tion since the 1980s.

(Before then, from the Civ­il War through the Carter years, it was won con­tin­u­ous­ly by Democ­rats as part of the “Sol­id South.”)

Warnock utter­ly crushed Walk­er in met­ro­pol­i­tan Atlanta, tak­ing near­ly 90% of the vote in heav­i­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic DeKalb Coun­ty, and also win­ning the coun­ties in which Augus­ta, Savan­nah, and Colum­bus are locat­ed. Addi­tion­al­ly, Warnock suc­ceed­ed in keep­ing Walk­er’s mar­gins in check in many impor­tant rur­al counties.

The result was a nar­row win, but not a razor-thin one.

“I want to say thank you from the bot­tom of my heart… and to God be the glo­ry,” said Warnock in a vic­to­ry speech short­ly before 11:15 PM Eastern.

“I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for a world we desire for our­selves and our chil­dren,” he added. “Vot­ing is faith put into action.”

“And Geor­gia, you have been pray­ing with your lips and your legs! With your hands and your feet, your heads, and your hearts.”

“You have put in the hard work and here we are stand­ing together!”

Before net­works called the race for Warnock, Pres­i­dent Joe Biden was asked (accord­ing to a pool report) about the Geor­gia runoff.

Biden shout­ed back (from the tar­mac of Joint Base Andrews, where he had just land­ed): “We’re going to win. We’re going to win Georgia.”

Biden then board­ed a pres­i­den­tial lim­ou­sine for a motor­cade ride back to the White House (skip­ping the usu­al heli­copter ride due to bad weather).

In a state­ment sent to NPI, NextGen Amer­i­ca cel­e­brat­ed the impact of the young vot­ers who showed up to pro­pel Warnock to victory.

“Young peo­ple across Geor­gia showed up, vot­ed, and fought for a bet­ter future this elec­tion,” NextGen PAC Pres­i­dent and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Cristi­na Tzintzún Ramirez said. “NextGen is excit­ed to cel­e­brate the youth-led vic­to­ry of Sen­a­tor Warnock.”

“From abor­tion rights to eco­nom­ic jus­tice, young peo­ple across the state resound­ing­ly sup­port pro­gres­sive can­di­dates and ini­tia­tives that promise equi­ty and jus­tice for all. Lead­ing up to the runoff elec­tion, NextGen con­nect­ed with thou­sands of vot­ers across the state to make sure they had a plan to show up to fight for the issues they care about. Young Geor­gians’ mes­sage is clear – extrem­ist Repub­li­cans and their val­ues do not rep­re­sent our vision for the future.”

“Tonight, Geor­gia vot­ers re-elect­ed a cham­pi­on for clean ener­gy jobs and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, Sen­a­tor Raphael Warnock,” said Ever­green Action Chief of Staff Lena Moffitt.

“In just his first two years in office, we’ve already seen Sen­a­tor Warnock intro­duce leg­is­la­tion to cham­pi­on Amer­i­can solar man­u­fac­tur­ing and cast a cru­cial vote for the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act, the most sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in cli­mate and clean ener­gy in Amer­i­can history.”

“Sen­a­tor Warnock’s strong cli­mate record no doubt inspired young vot­ers, the demo­graph­ic most like­ly to be con­cerned about cli­mate change who turned out in record num­bers in Geor­gia this elec­tion cycle. Warnock’s cam­paign placed Her­schel Walker’s bizarre cli­mate change posi­tions front and cen­ter in the clos­ing days, and Geor­gia vot­ers reject­ed a cli­mate-deny­ing extrem­ist. Tonight’s results show yet again that cli­mate change is a win­ning issue.”