A recent round of polling shows that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is looking at a close race, presuming GOP candidate Herschel Walker wins the Republican nomination for the upcoming Georgia Senate race, according to Newsweek.
Georgia’s primary takes place on May 24th. The former NFL running back is said to be in the lead with nearly two-thirds of Republican voters’ support, while all his opponents were in the single digits, as an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey conducted in April showed.
Depending on what poll you consult, they show that a potential Warnock vs. Walker matchup for the Georgia Senate seat will be a fight to the finish. Georgia has a been a traditionally red state, but the wins by Warnock, Sen. John Ossoff, and the potential for Stacey Abrams to beat Republican governor Brian Kemp could show Democrats have been making progress.
The current Real Clear Politics average of Georgia polls has the Republican contender ahead of the Democrat by 0.5 percentage points. Walker has an average of 47.3 percent, compared with Warnock’s 46.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the most recent poll shows Warnock with a 5-point lead over the Trump-backed candidate. That survey, conducted by WXIA-TV/SurveyUSA from April 22 to 27, puts the Democrat at 50 percent, compared with his opponent’s 45 percent. It polled 1,278 likely voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.
A late-January poll by Quinnipiac University showed a nearly tied contest between Warnock and Walker. The GOP candidate had a slight advantage of just 1 point, with 49 percent support among registered voters as opposed to only 48 percent for the Democratic incumbent. That survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points and polled 1,702 respondents.
Let’s preface this to say most of these polls are only comprised of a pool of over 1,000 voters in each instance. When Sen. Warnock defeated former Senator Kelly Loeffler in the 2020 Georgia runoff, it was a close race, but the Atlanta pastor won. Loeffler had never won an election–much like the opponent Warnock would be facing if Herschel Walker won the Republican nomination. Things like an ‘Election Police Unit’ and the ‘Election Integrity Act’ will not make things easy, but turnout will always be the key.