by Steve Wilson
A new poll by Rasmussen Reports gives Republican challenger Herschel Walker a 5-point lead over Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Rafael Warnock in their race, one of several pivotal to control of the U.S. Senate.
The key demographic for Walker is independent voters, which he leads Warnock by a 14-point margin, 49% to 35%. And this despite Warnock’s three dollars to every dollar the former Heisman Trophy winner’s campaign has raised.
The same poll of 1,053 of likely Georgia voters offers more good news for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. His lead is 51% to 41% over Democratic challenger Stacy Abrams. Like with Walker, unaffiliated voters are breaking in a big way, 49% to 32%, for the incumbent.
On a generic ballot question for Congress, 49% of respondents said they’d vote for Republicans while 39% said they’d vote for a Democrat. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, carried the state over Republican former President Donald Trump by the slimmest of margins, 49.5% to 49.3%, in 2020; in 2016, Trump rolled past Democrat Hillary Clinton 50.8% to 45.6%.
Rasmussen’s poll was conducted Sunday and Monday. The margin of error is 3 percentage points and level of confidence 95%.
The Rasmussen poll shows a race that is moving toward Walker after being considered a dead heat a week before.
According to an aggregation of polls on RealClearPolitics, Warnock leads the race by 2 percentage points in the Insider Advantage and East Carolina University polls, but Walker leads in the Rasmussen and DW/Trafalgar polls.
Walker is far behind in cash disparity. According to data from the Federal Election Commission from Sept. 30, Warnock has raised more than $111 million, while Walker has raised more than $37 million as of Oct. 19. For those keeping score at home, Walker has raised 33.3% as much as the first-term Democratic senator.
That mirrors Warnock’s $125 million haul in 2020, when he outpaced then-U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who raised more than $92 million.
Warnock then beat Loeffler by 93,000 votes in a Jan. 5, 2021 runoff.
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Steve Wilson is a regular contributor to The Center Square. Wilson has been an award-winning writer and editor for nearly 20 years at newspapers in Georgia, Florida and Mississippi and is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and University of Alabama graduate.
Background Photo “U.S. Capitol by Quick PS.
