Warnock defeats Walker in Georgia runoff race

Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) is projected to win the runoff race for U.S. Senate in Georgia, according to the Associated Press and Edison Research, defeating Republican Herschel Walker and giving Democrats a 51st seat in the chamber.

“I want all of Georgia to know, whether you voted for me or not, that every single day I am going to keep working for you,” Warnock told a crowd of supporters at his victory party Tuesday night. “I’m proud of the bipartisan work I’ve done, and I intend to do more, because I actually believe that at the end of the day, we’re all Americans.”

Toward the end of Warnock’s speech, the crowd broke out in chants of “Six more years!”

Walker conceded the race in a speech at his campaign’s watch party Tuesday, urging his supporters to “stay together” and to continue believing in the Constitution and in their elected officials.

Hundreds of thousands of voters in the state cast their ballots to resolve the last outstanding Senate race in the country, in which more than 1.8 million people voted early. While Democrats would have controlled the Senate next year regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, a win by Warnock gives the party more leverage in the chamber, which has been evenly divided for the past two years.