Georgia’s runoff remains close in first days of early voting

Early voting in Georgia’s runoff Senate election is underway in what is likely to be another close race, according to recent polling.

The latest polling averages from FiveThirtyEight place Republican candidate Herschel Walker one percentage point ahead of Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. AARP, however, released a poll last week showing Warnock leading by four percentage points. Walker was the favored candidate among voters older than 50, NewsNation partner The Hill reported.

Although Republicans have done well in the past in in-person early voting, The Daily Beast Congressional Reporter Sam Brodey told NewsNation that votes so far could be swinging in Warnock’s favor.

“I saw some statistics this morning indicating that the in-person early vote so far — a plurality of those votes have been Black voters who skew heavily Democratic so that would be good news for Sen. Warnock so far,” Brodey said.

Decision Desk HQ’s model predicts that Warnock has a two-in-three chance of winning the race, but with a one-in-three shot at victory for Republican challenger Herschel Walker, it’s bound to be close, said Kiel Williams, senior data scientist with Decision Desk HQ.

Th Senate race between Warnock and Walker was too close to call after midterm election earlier this month. Neither candidate had garnered the majority of votes necessary under Georgia’s voting system, and the race was continued for a runoff election, set to take place Dec. 6. Early voting opened Saturday.