Warnock, Walker make last push for votes in Georgia Senate runoff
Groups work to mobilize Latino voters in Georgia Senate runoff
From giving away bingo-like Mexican lotería cards to Taco Tuesdays and World Cup watch parties, Latino voting mobilization efforts ramped up in Georgia leading into the Senate runoff election.
Latino voters are expected to be consequential in determining who Georgia will send to the Senate.
Even though Latinos are roughly 5% of all voters in Georgia, they still “could be that key group,” said Matt Barreto, president and co-founder of the national firm BSP Research, which mainly focuses on Democratic polling.
Polls close soon in critical Georgia Senate runoff
Polls are closing at 7 p.m. ET in the Senate runoff election in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is hoping to fend off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker.
Voters faced rain and some long lines as both parties worked to drive people to the polls for the second time in as many months for the runoff, which was triggered by state law because neither candidate won an outright majority in the November election.
Democrats are feeling confident about their chances thanks to a massive spending advantage and because more Democrats opted to vote early. A record-breaking 1.85 million ballots have already been cast.
Republicans are hoping to turn the tide with a big turnout on Election Day, when most of their voters typically cast a ballot.
Democrats have a big Georgia ad spending edge. What does that look like to voters?
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has a massive ad-spending and fundraising advantage over Republican Herschel Walker in the runoff election.
But it’s sometimes hard to grasp what ad spending in the tens of millions means for the average Georgian. Our friends at AdImpact shared recent data with the NBC News Political Unit to help put the multi-million spending in perspective — on what the average television viewer might see in one day.
Walker campaign knows boosting Tuesday turnout is a 'f---ing ridiculously heavy lift'
Herschel Walker’s campaign started Tuesday believing he would win the votes cast on Election Day because that’s when Republicans typically turn out in greater numbers than Democrats. But, Walker’s campaign feared, it would be exceedingly difficult to win the runoff overall because his data gurus estimated that only 1 million voters would cast ballots on Tuesday, and that Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was already ahead by more than 200,000 early votes.
Then, shortly after 2 p.m., the Walker campaign’s spirits brightened a bit when the Georgia Secretary of State's office estimated that Election Day turnout could reach 1.3 million.
“The higher the turnout, the better it is for us,” said one Walker adviser who didn’t want to speak publicly about private campaign estimates. The adviser added Walker could win the runoff if he captures 58 percent of the Election Day vote, in the event that turnout hits 1.3 million.
“That’s within the realm of possibility,” the adviser said. “It’s a f---ing ridiculously heavy lift. But it could’ve been heavier.”
Ronna McDaniel gets a challenger for RNC chair
GOP attorney Harmeet Dhillon announced Monday night that she is running to chair the Republican National Committee, presenting another direct challenge to its current chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel.
Dhillon, a committeewoman from California who leads the Republican National Lawyers Association, announced on Fox News that she is jumping into the race.
“Republicans are tired of losing and I think that we really need to radically reshape our leadership in order to win,” she said. “And we can’t keep running elections like we did in the '90s and the 2000s.”
Asian American voters could help decide the Senate runoff in Georgia, experts say
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, who make up 4.7% of the state’s electorate, might provide the margin of victory in an election that’s expected to be a close call, and the country is taking notice.
The last few weeks have seen the formation of Georgia’s first AAPI Caucus, the appearance of campaign ads in Asian languages, and the descent of national celebrities and organizations on Georgia to help get out the Asian vote.
Asian voter turnout nearly doubled in Georgia between 2016 and 2020, AAPI Data reported last year, and those ballots amounted to more than the margin with which President Joe Biden won the state. Leading up to the Dec. 6 runoff, both parties are coveting their vote.
“Georgia is an extremely competitive state, and we have over 100,000 South Asians and 250,000 Asian Americans,” said Neil Makhija, executive director of the civic organization Indian American Impact. “We have been the margin in the past and we can easily be the margin again.”
HBCU students in Georgia face an extra obstacle in voting
When Lauren Nicks, a senior at Spelman College in Atlanta, cast her vote in last month’s midterms, she did so in her home state of New York.
Nicks, a 21-year-old international studies major at the historically Black college, had been told months earlier by fellow students about a law that does not allow students from private colleges and universities in the state to use their school ID as identification to vote — a rule she believed would prevent her from casting a ballot in Georgia.
As a result, she wasn’t able to vote for her preferred candidate, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, in November, or in next week’s runoff election either.
Her confusion emanated from a 16-year-old provision in Georgia voting law in which only IDs from state schools, not private schools, are considered an acceptable form of voter ID.
It’s a provision that voting rights experts say continues to confuse voters — especially college students or others who already face barriers — and results in many of them voting elsewhere or not at all. Furthermore, they argue it has a disproportionate impact on student voters of color, because seven out of 10 of Georgia’s historically Black colleges and universities are private institutions.