Democrats take 51-49 Senate majority

Sen. Raphael Warnock remains undefeated. After being pushed to another runoff in November, the Democrat asked voters in Georgia to put him over the top “one more time” in December – and, once again, they delivered.

Since November 2020, Warnock has been the leading vote-getter in four consecutive Georgia Senate elections. But because of state law requiring statewide candidates to get a majority to win a general election, Warnock had to double the feat in both his 2020 special election and his 2022 bid for a full six-year term.

His victory in this head-to-head contest with Republican nominee Herschel Walker means Democrats will add to their already-secured Senate majority, with 51 seats to the GOP’s 49, and solidify the Peach State as a potentially decisive 2024 presidential battleground.

As the 2022 midterm cycle spins to its end, here are key takeaways from this final election night in Georgia:

51st seat gives Democrats true majority: Democrats had already clinched control of the Senate, with 50 seats secured last month, which would allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote as she does now. But winning a 51st seat, thanks to Warnock’s victory Tuesday, comes with important benefits for the Democrats running the Senate and for President Joe Biden’s administration.

The party will now enter 2023 with a true Senate majority – one that won’t require the power-sharing agreement that has been in place over the last two years in an evenly divided chamber. That outright majority means that Democrats will have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance Biden’s nominees more easily.

Georgia is a swing state until further notice: As long as former President Donald Trump remains an influential figure in Republican politics, Georgia is poised to be a crucial Election Day battleground – especially when federal offices are on the ballot.

If there was any doubt before Tuesday, it’s been erased now. Walker was Trump’s hand-picked candidate to take on Warnock and he flamed out despite first running on a ticket with a popular Republican governor and then, this time, with that same governor’s express endorsement and support on the campaign trail.

Kemp’s inability to pull Walker over the finish line says less about him – or even Walker, a flawed candidate in any setting – than the state’s shifting partisan alignment. Changing demographics, an evolving economy and strategic, tenacious organizing by Democrats have made a beacon of the Old South a legitimate swing state.

On now to 2024.

The Democratic turnout machine strikes again: After the 2020 election, Georgia Republicans passed a controversial law that, among other things, reduced the amount of time between a November election and potential runoff, creating a condensed timeline that narrowed the window for mail-in voters and reduced the number of days to vote early in-person.

It didn’t matter.

The Democratic turnout machine in Georgia over the past four weeks – with a running start that goes back years and owes heavily to the groundwork by Stacey Abrams and her allies – once again delivered in a hotly contested race that attracted tens of millions of dollars in spending by the campaigns and national organizations.

Read more takeaways here.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock thanked a boisterous crowd of supporters at his election night party in Atlanta on Tuesday.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart and to God be the glory for the great things that God has done. And after a hard-fought campaign — or should I say campaigns — it is my honor to utter the most four most powerful words in a democracy: The people have spoken," he said.

Here are some of the scenes after Warnock was projected as the winner of Georgia's Senate runoff race:

One of the most common refrains in politics is that voters hate Washington and want outsiders to be elected to office. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victory in Georgia’s Senate runoff is part of a trend that suggests that, at least in 2022, that wasn’t true.  

Each of the 29 Senate incumbents who ran for reelection this year won. It is the first time in at least a century in which no incumbent senator seeking reelection lost.  

So what happened?

I’ll have more on this on Wednesday morning, but to put it simply:

• Bad challenger quality.
• A map without a lot of competitive races taking place in an era of high polarization.
• An unusually tight national environment.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock drew parallels from Georgia's complex history to his own life and deep roots in the state during his victory speech Tuesday night after CNN projected he won the runoff race.

He noted that his mother grew up in the 1950’s in Waycross, Georgia, “picking somebody else’s cotton and somebody else’s tobacco — but tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a United State’s senator.”

Warnock went on to say that he watched his late father "a pastor and a small business man, take care of his family by working really hard with his hands."

He continued: "A coastal city known for its verdant town squares and cobblestone streets — tall, majestic oak trees. Dripping with Spanish moss. Bend and back in the love of history and horticulture to this city by the sea. My roots, like the roots of those oak tree's go deep down into the soil of Savannah and Waycross and Screven County and Burke County. I am Georgia. I am an example and an iteration of its history. Of its pain and promise, the brutality and the possibility. But because this is America. And because we always have a path to make our country greater against unspeakable odds, here we stand together. Thank you Georgia."

As Warnock becomes the state's first Black senator to win a full term, Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic tie-breaking role in the Senate will likely be less necessary because of the additional vote.

CNN's Jasmine Wright contributed reporting to this post.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock thanked supporters in his victory speech Tuesday night, stating, "The people have spoken."

Speaking to a boisterous crowd of supporters, he said:

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart and to God be the glory for the great things that God has done. And after a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honor to utter the most four most powerful words in a democracy: The people have spoken," he said.

CNN projected Warnock will defeat GOP challenger Herschel Walker, handing Democrats a key win that will give them greater leverage in the Senate next year.

“I want all of Georgia to know, whether you voted for me or not, that every single day I am going to keep working for you," Warnock said. “I'm proud of the bipartisan work I’ve done and I intend to do more."

The senator pledged to keep working on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, creating jobs and advocating for criminal justice reform.