ATLANTA — Sen. Warnock's historic win in Tuesday's Senate runoff makes him the first Black senator to be elected to a full six-year term in the state of Georgia.
Democratic Georgia State Representative Erick Allen says the number of voters who turned out to vote is a testament to how people felt about the election.
The Secretary of State's Data hub showed 27% of registered voters participated in the runoff election.
"It's a little high, but I think it also shows the energy that was around this election cycle," Allen told 11Alive's Karys Belger.
Out of the total number of voters, 66% were over the age of 55. Despite the consistent number of older voters, Allen said the contributions of younger voters cannot be discounted from Warnock's success.
"I don't think we should minimize the impact that Gen Z had on even getting us to the runoff and then showing up again and into the Saturday voting," he said.
While Allen admits Saturday voting certainly helped Warnock win, he believes Warnock would still have been victorious in the runoff because of the efforts spent to mobilize voters from diverse backgrounds.
"You also have to look at the high turnout of the Black vote as well," he explained. "Ninety percent of the Black vote went to Warnock, and that's an extremely high number as well."
Overall, non-white voters accounted for around 26% of Georgia's voter turnout in Tuesday's runoff.
Moving forward, Allen said Democrats will need to look at the work Stacey Abrams did leading up to the race as a blueprint for future success.
"I think the lesson out of Democrats is to continue to develop that infrastructure so that we can continue to win. And I think in four years, the statewide races will look a lot different," Allen said.