Raphael Warnock beat the republican candidate supported by Donald Trump, Herschel Walker in this second round of the mid-term elections. The Democratic camp thus strengthens its majority in the Senate, at 51 seats against 49 for the Republicans.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
It was the last act of the mid-term elections in the United States. At the end of a tight ballot, the Democrat Raphael Warnock, outgoing senator, won on Tuesday December 7 with 50.7 % of the votes against a candidate supported by Donald Trump, the former American football player Herschel Walker . It is a victory for President Joe Biden who thus sees the Democratic camp strengthening his majority in the Senate, at 51 seats against 49 for the Republicans.
The two candidates had already faced each other in November but none having obtained more than 50 % of the votes, a second round was organized to decide between them, in accordance with the electoral law in this state of the south of the United States .
“The eyes of the nation are on you,” had pleaded before the Joe Biden election, calling for the voters of this state with a large African-American population to go to the polling stations.
This victory allows the Democratic camp to exert a greater influence in essential parliamentary commissions. It also significantly limits the influence of a moderate democratic senator, Joe Manchin, gravedigger of several major projects of the Biden. 2> Obama to the rescue 2>
To materialize their ambitions, the Democrats had called their heavy goods vehicles to the rescue. Former President Barack Obama, undoubtedly one of the most charismatic figures in the party, was campaigning in Atlanta last week.
Sign of importance and interest in this duel: nearly $ 400 million have been injected into the ballot, the most expensive in mid-term elections.
Historically acquired from the Republicans, Georgia had taken America by surprise by preferring Joe Biden to Donald Trump during the presidential election of 2020, then by sending two Democrats to the Senate two months later.
With several sports records to his credit, the Republican Herschel Walker, considered one of the best players in the history of American university football, has entered politics late.
The sixties thought they were successful in seizing the headquarters of Raphael Warnock, who before becoming in 2021 senator from Georgia officiated as a pastor from the former desk of Martin Luther King, in Atlanta.
The campaign of the African-American candidate pro-Trump was however splashed by several scandals. Herschel Walker, known for his anti-SIVG positions, was, among other things, accused of having pushed several of his old companions to abort.