PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. — Tuesday night, Georgians may know who will win the U.S. Senate runoff. The two candidates, Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock spent Tuesday trying to get their voters to the polls.
"Well, good morning everybody," Warnock said in a light rain, greeting about four dozen campaign volunteers at his final public event before the polls close at 7 p.m.
"We’re not leaving anything to chance which is why we’re standing out here getting sprinkled and baptized together," Warnock, a Baptist minister, chuckled.
Their get-out-the-vote operation stayed in motion backstage all day. They're trying to hold on to -- or expand -- the thin margin Warnock won in November, though it wasn’t enough to avoid this December runoff.
"The truth is, my opponent could still win this election," Warnock warned the volunteers. Yet Warnock and his backers stayed upbeat in the final hours before the polls closed.
"I’m getting people out to vote," Walker told diners at a Marietta restaurant. He too was upbeat as he worked the dining room.
Famous for decades as a football player, Walker got lots of attention from fans – many of whom view him as a better fit for the U.S. Senate than the incumbent Warnock. Walker, a first-time candidate urged to run by former President Donald Trump, gave his campaign team credit for keeping the race close – and putting him in a position to potentially win an upset tonight.
"I think my closing message is, I want to thank them for what they’ve done right now," Walker said in a rare response to questions from campaign reporters. "We're going to win this election. Herschel Walker is going to be your senator."
Both candidates sounded a bit weary Tuesday after an exhausting campaign season that has gone on for months. And Tuesday night may be a long night.