MACON, Ga. — While Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia's incumbent governor, clinched a win over Democrat Stacey Abrams, the U.S. Senate race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker goes to a runoff this December.
Governor's Race
Governor Brian Kemp won re-election Tuesday night with over 53 percent of the vote. Democrat Stacey Abrams trailed Governor Brian Kemp by nearly 300,000 votes-- six times her losing margin in 2018.
So why did that happen? You can follow the trends in our 13WMAZ Election Tracker.
Looking at the layout of the state, the trends broke pretty much as you would expect. The counties Kemp won are highlighted in red. He got the majority in 134 out of Georgia's 159 counties.
Abrams did well again in metro areas--like Macon, Savannah, Columbus and Atlanta highlighted in blue.
But each candidates hold of the race is shown using our heat map feature. It shows how well each candidate did county-by-county.
Taking a closer look at Central Georgia, you can see Kemp won most counties in the area.
Kemp had over 70 percent of the vote in counties like Monroe, Putnam, Pulaski, Dodge, Wilcox, Wheeler, and Telfair. He had a landslide win in Bleckley County, where 80 percent voted for Kemp.
As for how Abrams did in Central Georgia, she won Bibb County with 58 percent of the vote. However, look at 2018, she had 61 percent. In Hancock County. she got 68 percent this year, but back in 2018, she won a whopping 75 percent of the county.
Those percentage points and votes add up. This same trend of Abrams having less traction than 2018 are seen in areas across the state, even in the metro Atlanta area.
Abrams lost ground last night, even in areas that she won.
Also, Baldwin County gave us an early sign Tuesday night that Abrams was losing traction. Kemp won with 53 percent this election. In 2018, Abrams won with 50 percent.
This trend really shows that blue sweep we saw in 2020 wasn't in the state this year. Kemp's record, his status as incumbent, the political climate, and the economy all seemed to give him the advantage this election.
U.S. Senate Race
After all precincts in the state reported Wednesday, only close margins remained in Georgia's U.S. Senate Race.
With over 3.9 million votes counted, incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock has a slight advantage.
Looking at the state overall, Warnock has a strong hold in metro areas. Meanwhile, outside the metro areas, Walker has the advantage.
Walker won the majority of Central Georgia. He had over 70 percent in several counties like Monroe, Bleckley, and Dodge. Walker also swept up the county where his hometown is, Johnson County with 73 percent of the vote.
Going into December, the deciding factor will be turnout. Historically, more Republican voters show up for runoffs than Democrats.
I spoke to Charles Bullock, political science professor at the University of Georgia.
He expects a drop off in turnout on both sides and says this will be top of mind for both campaigns.
In addition, Bullock says, Warnock's incumbency may play a strong role.
"The record is an incumbent forced into a runoff... if they're leading like Raphael Warnock has a slight advantage. They win by about 55 to 56 percent of the time," Bullock said. "So I'd rather be Raphael Warnock. I'd rather be slightly ahead than slightly behind. But, anyone of them could win in four weeks."
13WMAZ will follow this race throughout the month and on December 6 when we find out which candidate Georgians choose as their U.S. Senator.