OAKWOOD, Ga. — There's one more day until the votes are counted in the U.S. Senate runoff and the two candidates, Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, spent Monday seeking votes in friendly territory.
Warnock spent the day in Fulton County. Walker conducted a sweep of small towns across north Georgia.
And nobody knows really what to expect Tuesday.
Walker skipped the stump speech at a breakfast joint in Hall County, where he glad-handed with voters and asked them to vote again Tuesday if they haven’t already. Last month, Walker carried Hall County with more than 70 percent of the vote.
Supporters are heartened the Republican kept it close statewide.
"He tied it up and he's taking it to overtime so obviously there’s something the voters in Georgia are looking for," said Darius Mitchell, a volunteer for the Walker campaign.
Walker had additional stops scheduled in Dawsonville, Calhoun, Ellijay and Kennesaw.
Warnock was likewise in a Democratic stronghold, stumping at a union hall in Fulton County, where he won 73 percent of the vote in November.
"Homestretch right here but we’re not letting off the gas," Warnock told Teamsters union leaders as he arrived.
He was with folks who’d spent days knocking on doors on his behalf.
Warnock said he likes what he’s seen during record early voting. This is his second runoff since January 2021.
"I’m heartened by the turnout we’ve seen but we remain focused. We need people to show up tomorrow," Warnock told reporters.
Meantime, backers fought off a case of nerves in a race that polls show is very tight.
"Anybody that runs these elections is nervous. Doesn’t matter what if you're running for mayor or city councilman," Chuck Stile said.
The next two days will be nerve-wracking. It’s the one issue on which both Warnock and Walker’s camps share a viewpoint. Walker-backer Bill Oberholtzer worries voters will respond to issues that shouldn’t be relevant.
"I’m fearful," Oberholtzer said. "They're diverting their attention to insignificant things that people take and blow out of proportion and it serves their purposes."
It's a tactic used by both sides in a race that has generated record fundraising from sources in and outside of Georgia.