GA Primary Results 2022: Kemp Over Perdue; Abrams, Walker, Warnock Win

Updated at 12:25 a.m. Wednesday

GEORGIA — The two biggest contests in Tuesday's primary election are settled: Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will have a rematch with Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, and incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will meet GOP rival Herschel Walker.

And in a closely watched race because it involved a foe of former President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was the projected winner of his race, NBC News said.

The Associated Press called Kemp the winner in his race just after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Earlier, AP called the races for Abrams, Walker and Warnock.

Raffensperger held off a challenge from Trump-backed opponent, Rep. Jody Hice, NBC News said.
With 98 of precincts reporting after midnight, Raffensperger had 51.9 percent of the vote, while Hice had 33.8 percent. If the unofficial results hold, because Raffensperger received more than 50 percent of the vote, he avoids a runoff against Hice.

The Republican secretary of state was relentlessly criticized by Trump after he refused to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in the state of just under 11,800 votes.

Walker told supporters at the Georgian Terrace Hotel that he is ready for a tough general election campaign, AJC.com reported.

“I’m prepared to take the hits. The harder they come the harder I’ll fight," Walker said.

He acknowledged that the Warnock's Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats if they want to control the chamber after the November mid-term elections.

“The road to defeating the Biden agenda runs through Georgia,” Walker said.

And Warnock's campaign issued a memo Tuesday night from campaign manager Quentin Fulks that listed multiple instances where Walker had inflated or falsified his record, AJC.com reported.

Walker's win was one of two in Georgia with national implications for the Republican party, with Walker supported by former President Donald Trump. Voters went the other way with Kemp, though, choosing him over former senator and current Trump supporter David Perdue.

Perdue was supported by Trump but lost by an unofficial margin of 73 percent for the governor to 23 percent for the former senator. At his election watch party, Perdue said he called Kemp to concede and that he is “fully supporting” the incumbent, AJC.com reported.

“Tomorrow morning you are going to hear me going to work to go to work to make damn sure Stacey Abrams is not the next governor of Georgia,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, another Georgia politician with a national profile, was declared by AP just after 9 p.m. to have won her primary. An ardent Trump supporter, Greene managed to beat five challengers and a lawsuit from voters trying to disqualify her in order to win the Republican nomination to represent much of northwest Georgia.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — yet another target of Trump's ire for refusing to overturn the election — is leading his race for the Republican nomination with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote. Challenger Jody Hice, who's repeated Trump's false claims of election fraud, is trailing with only about 34 percent of the vote. With less than a third of Georgia's precincts reporting so far, the race has yet to be called.

The polls closed at 7 p.m. local time across Georgia, except for two locations in Cobb County, along with a site in Milton, one in South Fulton and DeKalb County's McLendon precinct, all slightly delayed by late openings of precincts.

(Scroll down for real-time results below.) Subscribe to your local Patch newsletter.

The Georgia races were overshadowed Tuesday by news of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Reports said an 18-year-old shooter killed 14 children and one teacher.

"Mary, and I, and the girls, are heartbroken over the news from Uvalde, Texas," Kemp tweeted before the polls closed Tuesday. "For children and innocent adults, including a school teacher, to be taken from this world in such a depraved and violent way, it is incomprehensible."

Former Sen. David Perdue tweeted: "Bonnie and I are heartbroken by the tragedy in Uvalde and are praying for the victims and their families."

“As a father of two young children, this tragedy is horrific and numbing," Warnock said. "I’m praying that God surrounds the victims, their families and community with abundant love and healing.”

Abrams said in a statement, "To the families of Uvalde, we weep with you in your grief and ask for God’s solace for your unfathomable pain. May your angels be lifted up to spite the darkness that took them. And may the light of reason and compassion save the lives of others in their namesake."

Related: Texas School Shooting: 14 Students, 1 Teacher Killed, Governor Says

Even before election day arrived, Kemp appeared poised to win the GOP nomination handily over Perdue, who is backed by Trump. A Sunday Insider Advantage/Fox5 Atlanta poll showed Kemp with 52 percent of the vote and Perdue with 38 percent.

And a Fox News poll released a week ago showed Kemp even further ahead, with 60 percent of the vote versus Perdue's 28 percent. Kemp needed only one vote over 50 percent of the primary turnout to avoid a runoff election with Perdue.

The Republican winner will face Abrams in the general election on Nov. 8. Abrams narrowly lost the election for governor to Kemp in 2018.

Allies of the two candidates clearly followed the polls. Former Vice President Mike Pence rallied with Kemp Monday in Cobb County, and several GOP governors campaigned for Kemp. The Republican Governors Association invested about $5 million in Georgia to support Kemp, an unusually large amount for the association to spend on a primary, according to The Washington Post.

Trump endorsed Perdue in part because Kemp would not help overturn President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election. But as Perdue's fundraising efforts foundered and he lagged at the polls, Trump started to distance himself from his chosen candidate.

Pence supported Kemp in person, but Trump limited himself to a free telerally at 7 p.m. Tuesday that started just as the polls close.

U.S. Senate Race

In another closely watched race, football legend Herschel Walker — also supported by Trump — had a wide lead over other GOP candidates hoping to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who gave Democrats control of the body last year. Warnock is seeking his first full term after winning election to an unexpired term a year ago. He is expected to win handily over Tamara Johnson-Shealey in the Democratic primary.

Warnock, 52, made history last year when he became the state's first Black senator.
Before running for office, Warnock served as the pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once held the same post.

A poll by Landmark Communications showed Walker with a 60 percentage point support, and six other candidates mostly in single digits.

Walker — the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to a championship — spent most of his time as an NFL running back with the Dallas Cowboys. But Walker's first job as a pro football player was with the New Jersey Generals, at that time owned by Trump. Walker supported Trump for president in 2015 and campaigned on Trump's behalf.

Walker, 59, is focused on the economy and hammered Democrats for high inflation and gas prices. His plan for the economy includes rolling back federal regulations to promote business, building the Keystone Pipeline and increasing fossil fuel energy production and cutting taxes across the board, according to his campaign website.

USA Today reported that Walker supported finishing Trump's southern border wall and called for the country to "heavily invest" in the military.

An Associated Press report noted a turbulent personal history that could affect Walker's Senate bid. Public documents detailed accusations that Walker — who has talked about his struggle with mental illness — repeatedly threatened his ex-wife's life, exaggerated claims of financial success and alarmed business associates with unpredictable behavior. Walker did not respond to requests for comment.

Top Georgia Election Post On Ballot

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also resisted helping Trump overturn the 2020 election results, is leading in the polls as well, but nowhere near as decisively as Kemp is.

Raffensperger faced a challenge from election denier U.S. Rep. Jody Hice and others in a race to be the state's chief election official at a time Republicans like Hice indicated a willingness possibly to violate the law and overturn election results they don't like, Georgia Public Radio reported.

Raffensperger attacked Abrams and Democrats over their concerns with Georgia's new voting law. Record early voting numbers for the primary are evidence that SB 202 was a good reform that did not harm access to the polls, he said.

"I think it's competitive," Brian Robinson, a longtime Georgia GOP operative, told Politico. "And I don't know that many prognosticators saw that coming a year ago, that Raffensperger is in it."

A poll late last month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the University of Georgia showed Raffensperger and Hice deadlocked in the high 20s, Politico said. Nearly 40 percent of voters were undecided, and two other candidates — former Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle, who lost to Raffensperger in 2018, and former probate Judge T.J. Hudson — combined for about 9 percent.

Turnout High For Primary Election

With interest in both races running high, early voting in Georgia has already broken records, according to a statement Sunday from Raffensperger's office.

More than 850,000 early voters cast ballots through May 20, Raffensperger said, marking a 168 percent increase over 2018, the last gubernatorial primary, and a 212 percent jump over the 2020 primary.

GA GOVERNOR'S RACE: PRIMARY 2022 RESULTS (preliminary, refresh screen for the latest)

GA SENATE RACE: PRIMARY 2022 RESULTS (preliminary, refresh screen for the latest)