Georgia candidates’ starkly divergent views on race could be key in runoff

Democrat Raphael Warnock believes racism is an ‘old sin’; Republican Herschel Walker argues that racism doesn’t exist. Photograph: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP

As senator Raphael Warnock faces off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the most expensive race of the 2022 midterms, they also encounter a historic moment: it’s the first time in modern Georgia history that two Black candidates were nominated by both parties’ voters to vie for a US Senate seat in the deep south state.

Warnock and Walker both had experiences with poverty and Christianity during their upbringings yet their views on race and racism in society are now in stark contrast.