Hello, and welcome to Inside Politics Sunday. I'm abby phillip. Over time is nearly over in Georgia's high stakes and high drama Senate race with more than one 8 million early voters already casting their ballots.
And all eyes are on this Tuesday. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican heard Walker spent the campaign's final days urging voters to head to the polls and making their closing arguments.
Now, I'm not mad that he doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm mad that he doesn't know what he's talking about. And he thinks he ought to be a United States Senator. He's voted Joe Biden 96% of the time, but he didn't know he was voting with him or he loved that man.
I don't know what he's doing, but it don't matter because he's doing the wrong thing for the Georgia people, because the Georgia people are sick and tired of what they're doing to them. Now, the latest CNN poll shows Senator Warnock holding a narrow lead heading into this final stretch.
And on the ground, there have been long lines at the polls and momentum seems to be at the moment with the Democrats who are outspending Republicans by two to one. On the airwaves, CNN's Eva McKenzie has been spending many months in the Peach state of Georgia covering this race, and she joins us now from Atlanta.
So, Eva, it has been a very busy weekend in this very critical race for Senator Warnock. But lots of folks asking this morning, where is Herschel Walker? That's right. Good morning to you, Abby. Just two days left until the votes are counted, and you are correct.
Senator Warned herschel Walker could not be ending their campaigns more differently. Senator Warnock holding three public campaign events yesterday, hershel Walker holding none. He did show up at a tailgate party to greet supporters and fans, but he didn't give remarks or take questions from the media.
Senator Warnock began and the day with union workers who then went out to go doorknocks. Him and then ended with a big AAPI event. And I think that is noteworthy because the Asian American community is often described as an overlooked part of the electorate.
And, you know, in this state, you can't overlook any group or anywhere, right. These candidates have to campaign in big cities and small towns with every demographic. Herschel Walker, for his part, has long argued that Senator Warnock is too closely aligned with President Biden.
But that's not an argument we heard from him yesterday. His campaign in recent days has also knocked Senator Warnock for missing some key votes in Washington the last few days, because Warnock, of course, has been on the trail here in Georgia and not in DC.
Yeah, especially in a runoff. Every single vote has to be found and brought out to the polls. So what are you hearing eva from voters on the ground there? So if you go to these long lines during the early vote period here in Atlanta and you speak to Democratic voters, they'll tell you, listen, it shouldn't have even come down to this runoff.
They describe Herschel Walker as an embarrassment. Meanwhile, you go to Herschel Walker rallies and you speak to his Republican supporters and they say they think that he has been underestimated and also that the ground game that Republicans have built in this state is being underestimated as well.
Abby, Evan McCann, thank you so much for all your great work on the ground there. Let's discuss all of this and more with CNN Jeff Selany, Heidi Priscilla of Politico, Julie Davis of The New York Times and The Atlantic's.
Adam Harris so in this race now, it's boiled down to kind of the basics, really. Which is our voters going to default to the candidate who is in the opposition party, not in the leadership of the Senate running on this issue of the economy, or are they going to focus on this?
This is a CNN poll recently asks voters, which candidate do you think is well qualified? Warnock with a 25. Point advantage over Hershel Walker, has good judgment, 17 point advantage would effectively represent Georgia, a nine point advantage and has the right priorities, a six point advantage.
I mean, that's really what on the Walker the wardrobe side it boils down to for sure. And despite all that, the race is still very close because it is Georgia and it is a key battleground state. And look, even though the Senate control is not necessarily hanging on Georgia, it matters tremendously for Senate committees and the makeup of the Senate for subpoena power, etc.
E but the real question is those ticket splitters back in November, a month ago who voted for Brian Kemp, the Republican governor and then Senator Warnock, the Democratic senator? Are they going to basically leave their votes the same or will some of them sort of change because of that check on the Biden administration?
So the Democrats are in pretty confident but not overly confident because the voting period was shorter, the early voting period was shorter. So going in there are some unknowns but there's no doubt that some Republicans are not thrilled with how Herschel Walker has been campaigning in the final days.
As Eva was saying, he's been pretty absent. The entire reason to Jeff's point that we are in this situation of a runoff is because 2000 voters voted for Kemp and not for Warnock. So the question is, not only are those folks going to come back out for the guy who they dissed on the ballot the first time, but are the folks who actually just marked a straight Republican ticket even going to come back out when so much there is not at stake here for the Republicans, meaning the Senate majority?
And if you look at what's been invested or not invested over the past few weeks outspent two to one, where are all the surrogates who were here for the other Republican candidates? And I think that there's just a lot less motivation to help who is considered a flawed candidate when you don't have the Senate majority at stake.
Yeah the absence of surrogates on the Republican side is very be notable. They've been trying to keep former President Trump out of the state as much. As possible, but on the Democratic side. Former President Obama was in Georgia and making an argument to voters that Herschel Walker just doesn't deserve to be in the Senate.
Listen, since the last time I was here, mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia, like whether it's better to be a vampire or a werewolf. This is a debate that, I must confess, I once had myself when I was seven, then I grew up, in case you're wondering.
By the way, mr. Walker decided he wanted to be a werewolf. Yeah, Adam, I mean, it's funny. It's funny for sure. But I wonder, though, is that argument just for the Raphael Warnock voters who really can't stand what Hershel Walker represents?
Or is it also trying to appeal to even some Republican voters who held their nose and might have voted for him the first time, but maybe can't make themselves do it a second time? Yeah, you know, down the stretch, the Warner campaign has really been trying to make this about character and competence, quote, unquote.
Right. They continuously say this is about character and competence. Our candidate has that and the Walker campaign does not. I mean, if you look at the energy that voters have shown in this early voting period, you've seen something like 1.9 million voters have already gone out to the polls.
370 some odd million voters. 370,000 voters on the last day of early voting. So you've seen some of the rhetoric around our candidate, Raphael Warnock. Is the candidate of character and competence being kind of effective?
And of course, there's still a lot of votes left to be counted, something to the tune of four, 5 million, million votes in the last runoff election. But I think that they should feel, they are likely feeling very.
Comfortable going into going into Tuesday. I mean, I think what we are hearing former President Obama try to replicate is the dynamic that drove a lot of the midterm outcomes prior to this. Right. A month ago, this was sort of and you heard Mitch McConnell actually articulated not long after the balloting saying that like, the candidates that Republicans put forward with, in some cases frightened voters, turned off voters.
And so I think Democrats are really trying to sort of exacerbate that dynamic and bring it back and make sure that given how close the outcome was on election day in Georgia, some of those Republican voters or leaning voters that are in the middle either just decide not to show up or just sort of look at what they're presented with and say, you know what?
No thanks. Either vote for Warnock or just don't vote at all. Yeah, I mean, this early vote period is really critical for the Democrats. They have to really maximize whatever advantage that they have among their constituencies.
Just to take a quick look at where we are so far in early voting, women voters comprised about 56% of the electorate. In November, it was 53%. If you're a Democrat, you probably like that number. Same with black voters.
They're outpacing where it ended up in November. But when you look at younger voters, it explains why you've seen Raphael Warnock hitting the college campuses nonstop in these last few days or trying to get that number up, most likely.
And for Democrats, the argument is, as you were saying, Jeff, about the balance of power in the Senate. They need this extra vote because it makes the difference between them relying on Raphael Warnock or a Joe Manchin without question.
And also, like I said earlier on committee assignments, I mean, it really is a big deal. It's not paid attention all that much, but they've been split 50 50, Republicans and Democrats on every committee.
So Democrats having the majority will actually give them the full majority. But to take some of the mansion and accursed in a cinema power away and also save some time for the Vice president, she won't be upping to.
Go to the Hill and shuttle back and forth down Pennsylvania Avenue for Vice President Kamala Harris. Yeah, I mean and Joe Manchin is also pretty happy that he may not have to be in the line of fire quite as much as he used to be.