Georgia voters are heading to the polls for another U.S. Senate runoff, but they won’t be seeing Donald Trump.
According to reports from several news outlets, the former President has no plans to stump for Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the critical final days of the race, which concludes Dec. 6.
According to The New York Times, both sides believe Trump’s presence on the campaign trail could do more harm than good — Walker has been plagued by scandal and Trump, who is running for President again in 2024, is the only living Republican presidential candidate to have lost Georgia.
Notably, Trump’s endorsements have done little if anything to sway Georgia voters. In the Primary Election, he backed candidates challenging to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Both incumbents easily defeated Trump’s picks.
Walker is running against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. The Warnock vs. Walker advanced to a runoff after Warnock earned a few tenths of a point more than Walker in the popular vote but failed to secure a majority of the vote with third-party candidates on the ballot. Next week, Warnock and Walker will be the only candidates on the ballot.
Warnock was elected to the U.S. Senate two years ago under similar circumstances. He was the top vote-getter in the 2020 special election for the U.S. Senate seat he currently holds, but he failed to get a majority of the vote on the crowded ballot. In the runoff, he defeated appointed incumbent Kelly Loeffler 51%-49%.
The Georgia race will no longer decide which party will control the U.S. Senate, since Democrats pulled out narrow victories in Arizona and New Mexico, securing 50 seats with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaker vote. Still, both parties are putting their full weight into capturing the increasingly purple state.
