Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Herschel Walker has taken a two-point lead over incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in the Georgia senate race, according to an Emerson College poll released Tuesday.
Walker’s two-point lead (46 to 44 percent) is within the margin of error, but it is a positive sign for the Republicans’ chances of retaking the Senate in November.
The poll was taken August 28-29, before President Joe Biden announced student debt transfer to the taxpayer. The poll sampled 600 general election voters with a 3.9-point margin of error.
In April Emerson polling showed Walker with a four-point lead.
Overall, seven percent of voters were undecided, and four percent were supporters of someone else. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they expect Warnock to win the race. Forty-seven expected Walker to be victorious.
The poll also found, perhaps expectedly, that Walker leads Warnock among rural voters, while Warnock leads Walker among urban voters.
“Walker leads Warnock among rural voters 58% to 24% while Warnock leads Walker 66% to 25% among urban voters. In the suburbs, voters are breaking for Walker by a nine-point margin, 50% to 41%,” Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, said.
Warnock has taken heat in the past few weeks for enriching himself in the Senate — nearly doubling his income. Warnock’s income increased from $221,602 before the 2020 election to $532,781 in 2021, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Warnock had accused former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of holding the same seat to increase her wealth.
Questions have also arisen about whether he personally benefited from voting for the American Rescue Plan. Warnock voted for the coronavirus stimulus package, which gave $75,000 to a group his church founded and that shares an address with the church. The group, the Martin Luther King Sr. Collaborative, is run by the church, which compensated Warnock $120,000 in 2021.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.