Ryshan Bagwell (43) was going crazy: text messages, emails, calls. He has been harassed all day in recent weeks. ‘Are you going to vote? Yes? Then who? No! Vote for that one!’ Never before as a voter had he experienced such an intense campaign as this one midterms, here, in the state of Georgia. ‘So dirty too. Damn.’
His phone felt contaminated. So the first thing he did after casting his vote in and around the capital Atlanta on Tuesday: “Delete every political message from the past few months.” But then the news came: another round. He moans. “Everything starts again.”
It is still unclear which party will take power in the US Senate. Counting is still taking place in two desert states. According to the current state, Arizona would go to the Democrats and Nevada to the Republicans. That would make Georgia the decisive seat.
Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock ended here, after a polarizing campaign, both with about 49 percent of the vote. A third, independent candidate won 2 percent. An absolute majority is required in Georgia to win. So on December 6th a runoff electionjust like after the 2020 elections.
Georgians dread it. The two sides will unleash the full power of their nationwide campaign machines on this one southern state. Georgia then decides the future of the entire country. A weeks-long political lightning war is about to break out, financed by tens of millions of dollars. “And it was already so intense here,” Bagwell sighs.
mud throwing
The ballot will soon feature two Christian black men, born in Georgia – and that’s where the similarities between Herschel Walker (60) and Raphael Warnock (53) end. The Democratic Pastor Warnock was killed in 2021, even after a runoffGeorgia’s first black senator. During the campaign, he received support from former presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.
Herschel Walker is a former American football star for whom Donald Trump campaigned. The conservative takes a firm stand against abortion, while repeating the election lies of the former president.
Walker’s campaign was overshadowed by scandal. He turns out to have unrecognized children. He is charged with domestic violence, threats and stalking. And then the conservative turns out to have paid for an abortion in the past. One Democrat campaign spot after another hammers that into the voters.
The mud flies back and forth. Walker also accuses his opponent of domestic violence. He is said to have hit his wife after an argument – the pastor denies. ‘What else is Warnock hiding?’, Walker wonders in an election commercial. The parties have already spent $258 million on TV advertising, more than in any other state. They are broadcast non-stop. The importance of Georgia is lost on no one in Washington DC
The countryside
That these two diametrically opposed candidates performed the same on Tuesday shows how deeply divided this state is. Georgia is an agricultural state with fertile swampland, cotton fields, peach farms and, in all things, one metropolis: Atlanta. Of the eleven million inhabitants, half live around the capital. The voters are also divided. The Georgia election map is a red spot with a blue heart.
In Coffee County, 3.5 hours outside of Atlanta, Karina Bielke (51) is smoking a cigarette on the bench in front of the supermarket where she works. “I vote Walker,” she says, as do three-quarters of voters in her county. ‘Ah, those scandals,’ says Bielke. “He’s honest about that, isn’t he?”
The party transcends the candidate for many voters in Georgia. Still, Walker is damaged. He fared considerably worse than Republican Brian Kemp, elected governor. And he received 50,000 votes less than Warnock.
The 50 percent rule
The fact that, despite the higher number of votes for the Democrat, there will be a new round, leads to frustration especially among black voters. Both candidates are black – but neither are their supporters. According to an NBC News poll, 70 percent of white voters voted for Walker. 90 percent of African Americans chose Warnock.
The runoff dates back to the segregated 1960s. The rule was intended, among other things, to make black candidates more difficult to elect. The fear was that black voters would unite behind one candidate. A 50 percent threshold is difficult for the minority to overcome.
“Welcome to Georgia,” says Ablemable Thomas (65). “Warnock would have won in any other state.” Her Atlanta garden has more Warnock signs than plants. “I was going to take them away. But that’s not possible yet.’
Hollywood, not Washington
So Georgia is about to once again become the battleground of national politics. The first political commercial will appear on TV on Thursday: ‘Raphael Warnock belongs in Hollywood, not in Washington.’ That’s how unfair he would be: an actor.
The Democrats are already earmarking $7 million for their campaign. And the Republicans are also filling the war coffers. Thursday night, Senator Lindsay Graham begs Fox News viewers to “give, give, give.” “They’re destroying Herschel,” he says, “because they don’t want black people to become Republicans.”
Ablemable Thomas dreads the coming campaign time, but she’s ready. She has ordered dozens of ‘Warnock’ plates. They no longer fit in her own garden. Well with the neighbors. “This is no longer just a vote for Georgia,” she says, “but for the entire country.”
In Coffee County, Karina Bielke takes a different approach. ‘Black Votes Matter‘ read a sign in front of the polling station. She added: ‘and white‘.