Sen. Raphael Warnock has won reelection in the Georgia Senate runoff, the Associated Press projects, giving Democrats a 51-seat majority in the U.S. Senate.

"(My mother) grew up in the 1950s, in Waycross, Georgia, picking somebody else's cotton and somebody else's tobacco," Warnock said during a victory speech that celebrated — among others — his family, his constituents and the late Congressman John Lewis. "But tonight, she helped pick her youngest son to be a United States Senator."

The incumbent Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a former football great who won the backing of former President Donald Trump. 

Warnock, the state’s first Black senator, was first elected in 2021 in a runoff election to serve the remainder of Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term in the U.S. Senate. He will now serve a full six-year term in Congress’ upper chamber.

While the stakes were far lower than the last time Georgia voters headed to the polls for a runoff – in 2020, when Warnock and Jon Ossoff won over Republican incumbents and swung the Senate toward President Joe Biden’s party – a 51-seat majority would allow Democrats greater control over committees, give them an easier path to confirm judges and other Biden nominees and give them more breathing room on votes, lessening importance on moderates like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

The party's leader in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrated the news Tuesday night with a simple message: "51!"

It also locks down an all-important Senate seat for Democrats until 2028, with the party facing what could be a tough Senate map in 2024, and deals another blow to former President Donald Trump's endorsement record as he mounts a third presidential campaign.

Warnock and Walker squared off in the Nov. 8 general election, where the Democratic incumbent led the Republican challenger by roughly 37,000 votes. Neither candidate cleared the threshold for a majority, triggering a runoff under state law.

The runoff election coming to a close brings an end to what could feel like a never-ending Senate campaign cycle for Georgia voters. Between the 2020 primary, the 2020 election and the 2022 election, Warnock has been on the ballot five times in the last two years. Now the next Senate election in Georgia is not until 2026, when Ossoff is up for reelection.

It also means the end of a contentious and closely watched campaign between Warnock and Walker, with attack ads flooding the airwaves and both campaigns lobbing criticism at the other.

Walker, who won the Heisman trophy at the University of Georgia, coasted on his football fame to the Republican nomination, but has contended with a number of scandals throughout the race – including claims that he paid for abortions for two former girlfriends, which he has denied.

"There’s no excuses in life,” Walker said in his concession speech Tuesday night. “I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.”

"We're all winners," he added.

The Republican also inflated his philanthropic activities and business achievements – including claiming that his company employed hundreds of people and grossed tens of millions of dollars in sales annually, even though later records indicate he had eight employees and averaged about $1.5 million a year – and has claimed both that he’s worked as a law enforcement officer and that he graduated college, though he has done neither.

Walker was also forced to acknowledge during the campaign that he had fathered three children out of wedlock whom he had never before spoken about publicly — in conflict with his yearslong criticism of absentee fathers and his calls for Black men, in particular, to play an active role in their kids’ lives. 

His ex-wife said Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He has never denied those specifics and wrote of his violent tendencies in a 2008 memoir that attributed the behavior to mental illness.

Warnock, the senior minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, attempted to make the race about “competence and character,” painting it as a choice between the two candidates.

“I believe in my soul that Georgia knows that Georgia is better than Herschel Walker,” Warnock said last week. 

A number of high-profile advocates on both sides of the aisle have traveled to Georgia to campaign. Former President Barack Obama held a rally for Warnock, while Walker enlisted GOP allies like Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for campaign appearances and interviews.

The widespread attention given to the race solidifies Georgia as a key battleground state for both parties heading into the 2024 election. Democrats have already signaled Georgia’s importance in future races, with the party backing a Biden-supported plan to move the Peach State up to become one of the earliest states in the 2024 primary calendar.

Both parties sank tremendous resources into the race. Warnock’s campaign has spent about $170 million on the campaign, far outpacing Walker’s nearly $60 million, according to their latest federal disclosures. But Democratic and Republican party committees, along with other political action committees, have spent even more. One local Atlanta station – ABC affiliate WSB – temporarily added an afternoon newscast to accommodate the influx in political advertising spending, preempting other programming, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Nearly 2 million Georgians cast their ballots either in-person or by mail in a shortened early voting window ahead of Tuesday’s election, including a record-breaking 350,000 who voted on the final day of early voting last week.

With Warnock's win, President Biden becomes the first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934 to see every member of their party reelected, chief of staff Ron Klain shared on Twitter on Tuesday night.

This midterm election also marks the first time since 1964 that Democrats gained in the Senate while in the White House, and the first since 1934 that they netted Senate seats and governorships while holding the executive branch.

Warnock is the first Deep South Senate Democrat to win reelection since Mary Landrieu won a third term in Louisiana in 2008.

A number of prominent figures took to Twitter to celebrate Warnock's win, while others lamented Republicans' lost opportunity to regain ground in the Senate.

President Biden shared a photo on social media of him placing a call to congratulate Warnock after his victory.

"Tonight Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected Ultra MAGAism, and most importantly: sent a good man back to the Senate," Biden wrote tuesday night. "Here’s to six more years."

"Georgia voters said they wanted a Senator who would fight for them—and made it a reality when they reelected @ReverendWarnock to the U.S. Senate," Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter. "Congratulations, my friend."

"Senator Warnock's well-earned victory is a victory for Georgia, and a victory for democracy and against MAGA Republican extremist policies," wrote Majority Leader Schumer in a Twitter post.

"From Day 1 Raphael Warnock has been an incredible advocate for the people of Georgia, partner in progress for all Americans, and an upstanding member of the Senate Bald Caucus," wrote New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, who campaigned for Warnock, in a Twitter post. "Congratulations my friend."

"Congrats on a hard-fought victory," Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who is up for reelection in 2024, wrote on Twitter. "I'm proud to call you a friend, and I look forward to continuing our work next year fighting for common sense solutions on behalf of hardworking Americans."

Fellow Georgia Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff shared a photo of his de facto 2020 running mate with the caption, "Warnock wins!"

In a subsequent statement, Ossoff called it an "honor" to serve the people of Georgia alongside Warnock and congratulated his "dear friend" on his runoff victory.

"Reverend Warnock has won universal respect in the Senate for his moral clarity and dedication to public service, and I look forward to continue working side-by-side with Senator Reverend Warnock for our great state," Ossoff wrote.

"Congratulations to Senator @ReverendWarnock on winning re-election tonite + strengthening our Democratic majority," wrote Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman. "I look forward to working with you in the U.S. Senate."

"Tonight, the people of Georgia reaffirmed what Americans made clear last month," wrote House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. "They want results and are eager to see more."

Far-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lamented Walker's loss in a Twitter post while thanking Georgia voters for turning out.

"I’d like thank all of the Republican voters in Georgia that turned out to vote to try to get our US Senate seat back," Greene wrote. "This loss is not a reflection of our voters, but more a reflection of campaign strategies, messaging, and missteps that didn’t produce victory for Georgia."