Georgians return to the polls on Tuesday for a run-off vote taking place a mere four weeks after they cast their ballots in this year’s US midterm elections. This final vote could give Democrats a slightly more comfortable majority in the Senate. On the ballot for the first time running as major party nominees are two Black men: Herschel Walker, the Donald Trump-backed Republican candidate and former football star, and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent and Baptist pastor.
Following big Democratic wins in Nevada and Arizona that sealed their control of the Senate last month, a win in the run-off vote in Georgia on Tuesday, December 6 would give Democrats a slightly more comfortable majority there. This is important, says Steven Ekovich, a professor specialised in US politics at the American University of Paris, as several Democratic senators, including Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona “like to keep the Senate hostage” by not always voting along party lines. It would also help reduce the need for Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote on major pieces of legislation.
