Though offical returns as of 9:45 p.m. EST have the GOP's Herschel Walker ahead by a hair with 82% of the votes in, experts are calling the Georgia Senate runoff for Democrat Raphael Warnock. The red exurbs have reported in, but Atlanta's just warming up. Moeover, at least two counties that chose Walker in November's general election have flipped blue.
"I've seen enough," Dave Wasserman wrote on Twitter, "Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) defeats Herschel Walker (R)". The BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and others have called it likewise.
The New York Times' famed needle was out of action for the critical hours this evening, but signaled an overwhelming probability of Warnock victory upon its return. Nate Cohn posted a map that illustrates Walker's problem:
Barring a statistical miracle, then, the Democrats will have a 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate. Though still a thin margin, it means that the party's majority no longer depends upon West Virginia "coal baron" Joe Manchin or self-absorbed poseur Kyrsten Sinema. Shame, then, that New York's parade of useless, corrupt Democrat hacks tossed half the state, and with it the House, to the GOP.
