Poll: Walker, Warnock deadlocked in Georgia Senate runoff election

ATLANTA - With early voting reaching record numbers, a new poll says that the race to be Georgia's next senator is deadlocked.

The new survey from FrederickPolls, COMPETE Digital and AMMPolitical shows both Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Challenge Herschel Walker tied at 50 percent each ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff.

According to the poll, 97 percent of likely voters in the Peach State say they were "definitely voting" for their choice, essentially locking themselves for their candidate.

The poll found that Warnock is more favored by independents with 52 percent of their support compared to Walker's 48 percent. Warnock also benefits from women under 55 years old while Walker is the favorite of whites 65 years old and older.

Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of about 4 million cast in the general election but fell short of the majority required under Georgia law, triggering a four-week runoff blitz. Warnock first won the seat as part of concurrent Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021, when he and Sen. Jon Ossoff prevailed over Republican incumbents to give Democrats narrow control of the Senate for the start of President Joe Biden’s tenure. Warnock won a special election and now is seeking a full six-year term.

This time, Senate control is not in play, with Democrats already having secured 50 seats to go with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. That puts pressure on both Warnock and Walker to convince Georgia voters that it’s worth their time to cast a second ballot, even if the national stakes aren’t as high.

Georgians did not let the shortened early moving period keep them from turning out in records numbers. On Tuesday, more than 309,000 Georgians voted in-person. 

The advanced voting period continues through Friday.

Monday, Warnock appeared in suburban Cobb County with musician Dave Matthews, who praised Warnock as a "decent man." The audience of hundreds included many middle-aged white voters, a key target for Warnock as he tries to reach past core Democrats to capture voters who sometimes choose Republicans.

"When you go home, please tell all your friends that were like, on the fence, to get on the correct side of the fence," Matthews said.

Walker, for his part, has drawn enthusiastic crowds in the early weeks of the runoff, as well, and his campaign aides remain confident that he has no problem among core Republicans. His challenge comes with the middle of the Georgia electorate, a gap highlighted by his shortfall compared to Kemp.

"I feel Herschel Walker benefited by having Brian Kemp in the original election on Nov. 8, and I think Kemp not being there will hurt the Republicans a little bit," said Alpharetta resident Marcelo Salvatierra, who voted for Republican Kemp and Democrat Warnock and still supports the senator in the runoff.

Salvatierra said he backed Kemp’s re-election "because it seems to me Georgia has done well." But Republicans at the federal level, he said, never offered a serious counter to Democratic control of Washington, while Walker also comes with considerable personal baggage.

"Character matters and I sense he doesn’t have character," Salvatierra said.

Warnock has encouraged that sentiment among core Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. For months, he’s said Walker, a former football star making his first bid for public office, was "not ready" for the Senate. In recent weeks, he’s ratcheted up the attack to say Walker is "not fit," highlighting the challenger’s falsehoods about his accomplishments in the private sector, along with allegations of violence against women and accusations by two women that Walker encouraged and paid for their abortions. Walker, who backs a national ban on abortions without exceptions, denies that he ever paid for any abortions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.