The US Senate contest in Georgia that could determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress is headed for a 6 December runoff, media projections suggested on Wednesday.
Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock, a black pastor at a historic church, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a former American football star backed by Donald Trump, will battle for the seat on 6 December 6, both CNN and NBC have projected.
Neither candidate has earned the simple majority of votes needed by law to win outright.
The 53-year-old Warnock is seeking a full term after winning the seat in a runoff in January 2021 -- a victory that helped secure Democrat control of the Senate for the first two years of President Joe Biden's term.
Warnock is the senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr once preached.
Walker, after a glittering career as a football player, benefitted from name recognition and Trump's endorsement.
But his campaign was beset by allegations of past domestic abuse, an exaggerated career resume, fathering children outside of his marriage and paying for the termination of pregnancies of two previous girlfriends. He claims to be strongly against any liberalisation of abortion.
The clash is crucial to the future control of Congress, which remained in the balance Wednesday as several key races are yet undecided.
