US midterm elections: Georgia race likely headed to runoff

The increasingly significant race for a Senate seat in Georgia is likely heading to a run-off, with both candidates appearing unlikely to break the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright.

Both Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, and challenger, Republican Herschel Walker, “were hovering around 49 percent of the vote, but not passing the 50 percent they would need to avoid a runoff”, he said.

“It remains very close to calling, and with fewer and fewer votes left to call, unless one of them pulls rabbit out of the hat in the next couple of hours, they’re going to have a runoff,” he said.

Georgia is just one of a handful of races that remain that could decide which party controls the Senate.

Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver had received about 2 percent of the votes early Wednesday and was expected to prevent Warnock or Walker from reaching the 50 percent mark.

In a district in western Michigan, Hillary Scholten, an immigration lawyer, bested Trump-backed John Gibbs, a former official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Earlier this year, with Trump’s support, Gibbs won the Republican Party’s nomination for the seat, narrowly defeating Congressman Peter Meijer who had voted to impeach the former president.

With losses expected elsewhere, the win in Michigan could prove decisive to Democrats’ chances of protecting their slim majority in the House of Representatives.

Agencies