(ATLANTA) — Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is running in his fourth election in roughly two years as he fights for a full six-year term representing the battleground state.

Warnock is facing Republican Herschel Walker, a businessman and college football legend in Georgia, in Tuesday’s runoff after neither reached the 50% threshold in last month’s general election, as mandated by state law.

Warnock first won his seat in the Senate in a 2021 runoff after neither he nor then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler garnered 50% of the vote in their first matchup in November 2020.

A noted reverend, Warnock — whom Republicans have sought to cast as too liberal for the state — has campaigned on a personal history steeped in religion, service and social justice. He has also touted his current work during his short time in Congress, including some bipartisan priorities, while Walker calls him merely a vote for President Joe Biden’s policies on inflation and more.

“I’m not a senator who used to be a pastor. You might as well know that you sent a pastor to the Senate,” Warnock told canvassers in October.

He grew up in public housing in Savannah, the 11th of 12 children to two Pentecostal preachers. He ultimately attended Morehouse College, a historically Black institution in Atlanta, before earning a master’s and doctoral degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

During the 1990s, he served as the youth pastor and assistant pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, a church with an extensive history of fighting for several social justice causes.

The church refused to hire workfare recipients in protest against then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s requirement that welfare recipients work to receive benefits, and it hosted Fidel Castro in 1995 while Warnock was youth pastor, though there is no evidence indicating Warnock was part of the decision-making process of welcoming Cuba’s authoritarian leader.

Warnock in November traveled back to Abyssinian to honor his late mentor, the preacher Calvin Butts, whom he said helped inspire his passion for social issues.

“Calvin Butts taught me how to take my ministry to the streets,” Warnock said in a eulogy, according to The New York Times. “He understood that the church’s work doesn’t end at the church door. That’s where it starts.”

After Abyssinian, Warnock worked at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore before ultimately returning to Georgia to serve as senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was famously led by Martin Luther King Jr. Warnock was featured at several prominent events, including former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration and the funeral for Georgia Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement.

Also, from 2017-2020, Warnock chaired the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan voter registration effort.

In 2020, before the election, Warnock was accused by then-wife Ouleye of running over her foot amid their divorce proceedings. She told responding officers that Warnock “crossed a line” and suggested he was manipulative, calling him a “great actor.”

However, neither police nor medical professionals were able to find evidence to show that she was injured, and Warnock was not charged with any crimes. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of his then-wife’s claim: “It didn’t happen.”

Warnock first ran for office in 2020 against Loeffler, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by late Sen. Johnny Isakson, who resigned because of health issues. After defeating Loeffler in 2021, Warnock became the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South and, along with Jon Ossoff, the first Democratic senator elected in Georgia in some 20 years.

While in the Senate, Warnock has vociferously advocated for expansions to health care access, particularly around Medicaid, and emerged as one of the leading voices to lower the cost of insulin. He successfully advocated for language in the Inflation Reduction Act, which ultimately became law, to cap cost for the medication at $35 for people on Medicare.

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(ATLANTA) — Republican Herschel Walker hopes to do what former Sen. Kelly Loeffler could not and defeat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election in Georgia.

Walker, a football legend in the state known for scoring touchdowns in the University of Georgia’s 1980 championship season, will face Warnock in Tuesday’s race after neither reached the required 50% threshold in last month’s general election.

Both the November election and the runoff have seen Walker deny a series of allegations from women, including that he paid for their abortions, which he has said is not true. He is running as a staunchly anti-abortion candidate.

During the campaign, Walker’s past also received new scrutiny, such as resurfaced reports about violence in his first marriage to Cindy Grossman — which he didn’t contest — amid what he said was a struggle with dissociative identity disorder.

Warnock, Walker’s rival in the runoff, was first elected in January 2021 after defeating Loeffler in a previous runoff to serve the remainder of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term when Isakson resigned.

While the outcome on Tuesday won’t determine control of the Senate, Walker could clinch a 50th seat for the GOP and create procedural obstacles for Democrats in the chamber.

Walker entered the Republican primary in the Senate race in August 2021 at the urging of former President Donald Trump, a longtime friend, whose swift support largely cleared the field.

Walker boasts significant name recognition in Georgia from his extensive football career. He was born in Augusta and after emerging as a star athlete in high school, he played football as a running back at the University of Georgia, where he helped win the national championship in 1980 and the Heisman Trophy in 1982.

In 1983, he joined the New Jersey Generals in the now-defunct United States Football League. The team was sold to Trump after the 1983 season.

He was later selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1985 draft and played in the NFL for 12 seasons, including for the Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants.

Later, he launched a chicken distribution business in 2002.

Despite Walker’s local fame, he has grappled with a series of controversies — and criticism from some in his party — while running against Warnock.

Reports showed that Walker never graduated from college, despite his campaign team stating that he did so, and he never had a formal job with law enforcement after Walker repeatedly suggested he did.

During the cycle, Walker also confirmed he has four children — not just the adult son, social media influencer Christian, whom he has been publicly raising for years, but he insisted he wasn’t hiding his kids from the public.

At a recent rally for Warnock, former President Barack Obama jabbed at Walker’s verbal blunders, such as an unusual riff about vampires and werewolves.

On the trail, Walker has cast some of the most serious allegations as political smears manufactured by Democrats.

At the same time, he has emphasized his Christian faith and belief in “redemption.”

“I’m here to win the seat for the Georgia people because the Georgia people need a winner,” he said in October. “They don’t need the one that we see going on right now.”

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