Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock on Thursday night, hoping to boost the senator ahead of his crucial Georgia runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.
Obama addressed the crowd ahead of next week’s runoff election, which will determine whether Warnock or Walker will be elected. In an extremely close general election race in November, neither candidate received the required 50 percent to win outright, forcing this Senate battle into overtime.
“I’m here to tell you we can’t let up. I’m here to tell you we can’t tune out. We can’t get complacent. We have to run through the tape,” Obama said. “And I know you can do it because you did it before.”
Obama and Warnock emphasized Democrats’ Senate track record, citing bipartisan infrastructure legislation that passed last year, the Senate confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court — and gun control legislation passed earlier this year, among other achievements.
A Warnock win would give Democrats 51 seats in the Senate instead of 50. According to Obama, doing so would prevent one person from delaying votes in the house and stop someone who “chases wacky conspiracy theories” from gaining influence.
“What’s the difference between 50 and 51?” he asked. “The answer is a lot.”
The former president last visited the state just five weeks ago to energize voters in advance of the November 8 general election. His speech came the day before early voting ended in Georgia. An estimated 1.1 million people have already cast ballots in the state.
