Politics

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Glenn Youngkin swept into office as a Republican sensation with a fresh formula for victory as the GOP contemplated its future beyond Donald Trump.

But one year after Youngkin became the first Republican in more than a decade to win the Virginia governorship, some in his party believe the shine of his national star is being tested just as he quietly contemplates a 2024 presidential run.

Most of the midterm candidates Youngkin tried to help this fall were defeated. Major presidential donors, even those who support him, see the 55-year-old former private-equity chief as simply one in a crowded class of would-be Trump alternatives. And there’s concern that Youngkin has few resonant accomplishments to sell skeptical Republican primary voters.

“Youngkin’s only campaign talking point right now is, ‘I won Virginia.’ He’s going to need something more than that,” said Iowa Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats, an influential voice in the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucus.

With the next presidential primary season already underway, Virginia’s upcoming legislative session offers Youngkin a critical opportunity to demonstrate executive leadership and burnish his conservative bona fides on issues including guns and abortion.

He’ll hardly be alone. Other ambitious Republican governors in Arkansas, Florida, New Hampshire and South Dakota are eyeing legislative successes to bolster their national political standing.

Youngkin, who downplayed his opposition to abortion rights during his campaign but has said he would sign “any bill” to “protect life,” wants allies in the General Assembly to pass a 15- or 20-week ban. But with Democrats narrowly controlling the state Senate, those plans face steep odds.

At the same time, he’s facing pressure on both sides of the gun debate after a fresh series of deadly shootings rocked the state, leaving 13 victims dead in three shootings last month alone. Youngkin, who was not endorsed by the National Rifle Association during his campaign last year, vowed to release a comprehensive mental health platform in January but said any consideration of new gun safety measures before criminal investigations into the shootings conclude is premature. Any push on guns would face a serious hurdle in the GOP-controlled state House.

Some close to Youngkin, who publicly downplays the 2024 speculation, are actively encouraging him to seek the presidency, seeing no downside given that Virginia law prevents him from seeking a second consecutive term as governor. But they are under no illusion it will be easy for a lower-profile first-term governor entering a field that already includes Trump and is expected to include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, among other nationally known Republican heavyweights.

Still, donors and early state operatives believe there is an opening for a candidate who can appeal to moderates, independents and suburban voters while offering a clear stylistic contrast with the likes of Trump and DeSantis.

“This year is a big test for Glenn,” said prominent Republican donor Bobbie Kilberg, who attended a private retreat Youngkin hosted in September. “He is sophisticated, he is smart, he can work across the aisle with Democrats.”

Kilberg says she’s eager for her party to move past Trump. And she is not inclined to support DeSantis, saying, “I’m looking for someone whose edges are not quite so sharp.” Still, she isn’t ready to commit to a prospective Youngkin 2024 bid.

“Glenn is one of four or five individuals that I would be very pleased to support,” she said.

Youngkin captured national attention by winning in a state that Joe Biden carried by 10 percentage points just one year earlier in his successful Democratic presidential campaign. Youngkin did it by keeping Trump at arm’s length and focusing on education, parental rights, public safety and the economy — all the while casting himself as an upbeat suburban dad and political outsider.

With no election of his own this fall, he spent recent months traveling the country to stump for other Republican candidates.

The national tour didn’t go particularly well.

Trump is often blamed for elevating flawed candidates, but Youngkin’s endorsement record was worse. The Virginia governor publicly campaigned with at least 15 Republican candidates for governor between July and early November, including Arizona’s Kari Lake and Michigan’s Tudor Dixon. Of the group of 15, just five won, and of those, only one — Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo of Nevada — flipped a seat from Democrat to Republican.

Youngkin did equally poorly at home in Virginia, where he stumped with the Republican challengers in Virginia’s three most competitive congressional districts. Only one unseated the Democratic incumbent.

Youngkin also drew Trump’s ire as talk of his presidential ambitions grew.

Just three days after the election, Trump unleashed a racist attack against Youngkin on social media, suggesting his name “sounds Chinese,” while taking credit for his political rise. Hinting at a perceived lack of accomplishments, Trump also noted that Youngkin was “having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia.”

John Fredericks, a right-wing radio host who previously led Trump’s campaign in Virginia, said it was a mistake for the former president “to punch down” at Youngkin.

“He’s not a serious candidate in 2024,” Fredericks said of the Virginia governor, describing him as “a poor man’s DeSantis.”

“What does Youngkin bring to the table? He doesn’t have a record in Virginia to run on, and before that he was CEO of a company that was shipping jobs to China,” Fredericks said.

Francis Rooney, a businessman, major GOP donor and former congressman and ambassador, disagrees. Rooney, who also attended the retreat and whose company has donated to Youngkin, credits the governor with notching economic development wins, sparking a parents’ rights “movement” in education and signing into law a budget that included tax cuts as well as raises for teachers and law enforcement.

Kristin Davison, a political adviser, said Youngkin is leading “with results, not just words,” also noting his administration’s efforts to improve government efficiency and end school mask mandates.

“Many folks across the country look to Governor Youngkin as an example of leadership and the future of the Republican Party,” she said.

Youngkin, who did not grant an interview for this story, will soon be heading into his second legislative session with a lengthy to-do list. He has said he wants to find bipartisan solutions to curtail violent crime, while pursuing additional tax cuts. He also recently rolled out a multifaceted plan to address the strained housing supply and has pledged to advance Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals and decouple Virginia from California’s clean car standards.

He’ll have another chance to demonstrate his political skills later in 2023, when every state legislative seat is on the ballot in an off-year election. That will give Youngkin the chance to rally Republicans to defend their House majority and retake the Senate.

For now, Youngkin continues to be a regular feature in the early 2024 conversation, according to Eric Levine, a New York-based Republican donor who’s actively encouraging his party to find an alternative to Trump.

“I never heard anyone say, ‘Youngkin, he’s my guy,’ but he comes up almost all the time on people’s relatively short list,” Levine said, acknowledging that he’d want to learn much more about Youngkin before deciding whether he could support him. “The one impression I have of Glenn Youngkin is that he’s a very rational actor, a very smart guy, and he’s not going to damage his brand by jumping into a race he can’t win.”

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Peoples reported from New York.

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ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia voters on Tuesday are set to decide the final Senate contest in the country, choosing between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker after a four-week runoff blitz that has drawn a flood of outside spending to an increasingly personal fight.

This year’s runoff has lower stakes than the two in 2021, when victories by Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff gave Democrats control of the Senate. The outcome of Tuesday’s contest will determine whether Democrats have an outright 51-49 Senate majority or control a 50-50 chamber based on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.

The runoff brings to a close a bitter fight between Warnock, the state’s first Black senator and the senior minister of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and political novice who has waged his bid in the mold of former President Donald Trump.

A victory for Warnock would solidify Georgia’s status as a battleground heading into the 2024 presidential election. A win for Walker, however, could be an indication that the Democratic gains in the state might be somewhat limited, especially given that Georgia Republicans swept every other statewide contest last month.

In that election, Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast but fell shy of a majority, triggering the second round of voting. About 1.9 million votes already have been cast by mail and during early voting, an advantage for Democrats whose voters more commonly cast ballots this way. Republicans typically fare better on voting done on Election Day, with the margins determining the winner.

Last month, Walker, 60, ran more than 200,000 votes behind Republican Gov. Brian Kemp after a campaign dogged by intense scrutiny of his past, meandering campaign speeches and a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions — accusations that Walker has denied.

Warnock, whose victory in 2021 was in a special election to serve out the remainder of GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term, sounded a confident note Monday during a packed day of campaigning. He predicted that he had convinced enough voters, including independents and moderate Republicans who supported Kemp, that he deserves a full term.

“They’ve seen that I will work with anybody that helps me to do good work for the people of Georgia,” said the 53-year-old senator. “I think they’re going to get this right. They know this race is about competence and character.”

Walker campaigned Monday with his wife, Julie, greeting supporters and offering thanks rather than his usual campaign speech and full-throated attacks on Warnock.

“I love y’all, and we’re gonna win this election,” he said at a winery in Ellijay, comparing it to championships he won as an athlete. “I love winning championships.

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.

The senator has paired his push for bipartisanship with an emphasis on his personal values, buoyed by his status as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. And, beginning with the closing stretch before the Nov. 8 general election, Warnock added withering takedowns of Walker, using the football star’s rocky past to argue that the political newcomer was “not ready” and “not fit” for high office.

Walker, who used his athletics fame to coast to the GOP nomination, has sought to portray Warnock as a yes-man for President Joe Biden. Walker has sometimes made the attack in especially personal terms, complete with accusing Warnock of having his “back bent” and “being on his knees, begging” at the White House — a searing charge for a Black challenger to level against a Black senator about his relationship with a white president.

A multimillionaire businessman, Walker has 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. He has suggested that he’s worked as a law enforcement officer and said 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 direct conflict with Walker’s 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 has detailed violent acts, saying Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. Walker has never denied those specifics and wrote of his violent tendencies in a 2008 memoir that attributed the behavior to mental illness.

Warnock has countered with his individual Senate accomplishments, touting a provision he sponsored to cap insulin costs for Medicare patients while reminding voters that Republicans blocked his larger idea to cap those costs for all insulin-dependent patients. He hailed deals on infrastructure and maternal health care forged with Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, mentioning those GOP colleagues more than he did Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or other Democrats in Washington.

After the general election, Biden, who has struggled with low approval ratings, promised to help Warnock in any way he could, even if it meant staying away from Georgia. Bypassing the president, Warnock decided instead to campaign with former President Barack Obama in the days before the runoff election.

For his part, Walker was endorsed by Trump but avoided campaigning with him until the campaign’s final day: The pair conducted a conference call Monday with supporters, according to a Republican National Committee spokesperson.

Walker’s candidacy is the GOP’s last chance to flip a Senate seat this year. Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Don Bolduc of New Hampshire, all Trump loyalists, already lost competitive Senate races that Republicans once considered part of their path to a majority.

Walker has differentiated himself from Trump in a notable way. Trump has spent two years falsely claiming that his loss in Georgia and nationally was fraudulent, despite the fact that numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even his own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.

At his lone debate against Warnock in October, Walker was asked whether he’d accept the results even if he lost. He replied with one word: “Yes.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is playing host to roughly 50 Democratic state lawmakers from 31 states this week as legislatures prepare for their upcoming sessions, aiming to talk over strategy on top issues like climate change, gun violence, abortion rights and voting rights.

Those expected to attend the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday include Georgia House Minority Leader James Beverly, Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell and Idaho House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, according to the White House.

The aim is to give state lawmakers a to-do list for the upcoming legislative session, though meeting those goals will be nearly impossible in states where Republicans are in control. The meetings come as Democrats are increasingly focused on making inroads in state governments in part through better alignment on top issues, a political tactic that helped the GOP secure leadership in 23 states.

The legislators will meet with Biden administration policy experts on drug control, veterans affairs, environmental quality, criminal justice, violence prevention and climate change.

The discussion panels will include a session on how states can develop better clean energy and increase wind and solar projects. Another will look at the protection and expansion of health care coverage, with suggestions on how to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage, strengthen mental health care and expand access to naloxone, a drug that can stop an opioid overdose. There will also be discussions on economic security, including minimum wages, rent discrimination and affordable housing.

Other areas of focus include protecting rights for LGBTQ Americans and voting rights, civil rights and the preservation of democracy. Additional topics will include gun violence prevention, community policing and investments in public safety.

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s top officials certified the midterm election results Monday, formalizing victories for Democrats over Republicans who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged.

The certification opens a five-day window for formal election challenges. Republican Kari Lake, who lost the race for governor, is expected to file a lawsuit in the coming days after she’s spent weeks of criticizing the administration of the election.

Election results have largely been certified without issue around the country, but Arizona was an exception. Several Republican-controlled counties delayed their certification despite no evidence of problems with the vote count. Cochise County in southeastern Arizona blew past the deadline last week, forcing a judge to intervene on Thursday and order the county supervisors to certify the election by the end of the day.

“Arizona had a successful election,” Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who beat Lake in the race for governor, said before signing the certification. “But too often throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters.”

The statewide certification, known as a canvass, was signed by Hobbs, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, a Ducey appointee.

When the same group certified the 2020 election, Ducey silenced a call from then-President Donald Trump, who was at the time in a frenetic push to persuade Republican allies to go along with his attempts to overturn the election he lost.

“This is a responsibility I do not take lightly,” Ducey said. “It’s one that recognizes the votes cast by the citizens of our great state.”

Republicans have complained for weeks about Hobbs’ role in certifying her own victory, though it is typical for election officials to maintain their position while running for higher office. Lake and her allies have focused on problems with ballot printers that produced about 17,000 ballots that could not be tabulated on site and had to be counted at the elections department headquarters.

Lines backed up in some polling places, fueling Republican suspicions that some supporters were unable to cast a ballot, though there’s no evidence it affected the outcome. County officials say everyone was able to vote and all legal ballots were counted.

Hobbs immediately petitioned the Maricopa County Superior Court to begin an automatic statewide recount required by law in three races decided by less than half a percentage point. The race for attorney general was one of the closest contests in state history, with Democrat Kris Mayes leading Republican Abe Hamadeh by just 510 votes out of 2.5 million cast.

The races for superintendent of public instruction and a state legislative seat in the Phoenix suburbs will also be recounted, but the margins are much larger.

Once a Republican stronghold, Arizona’s top races went resoundingly for Democrats after Republicans nominated a slate of candidates backed by Trump who focused on supporting his false claims about the 2020 election. In addition to Hobbs and Mayes, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was reelected and Democrat Adrian Fontes won the race for secretary of state.

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This story has been corrected to show that Fontes ran for secretary of state, not attorney general, and that Arizona was once a Republican stronghold, not Democratic.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faced rebuke Sunday from officials in both parties after calling for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump, who announced last month that he is running again for president, made the claim over the weekend on his Truth Social media platform.

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” he wrote. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday described Trump’s statement as strange and extreme and said Republicans will have to make a choice whether to continue embracing Trump’s anti-democratic views.

“Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness or continue to lean in to the extremism, not just of Trump, but Trumpism,” Jeffries said.

Trump, who is the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021, faces a escalating criminal investigations, including several that could lead to indictments. They include the probe into classified documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, and ongoing state and federal inquiries related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Asked about Trump’s comments Sunday, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said he “vehemently” disagrees and “absolutely” condemns the remarks, saying they should be a factor as Republicans decide who should lead their party in 2024.

“There is a political process that has to go forward before anybody is a frontrunner or anybody is even the candidate for the party,” he said. “I believe that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”

Rep.-elect Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., also objected to the remarks, saying it was time to stop focusing on the “grievances of prior elections.”

“The Constitution is set for a reason, to protect the rights of every American,” Lawler said. “I think the former president would be well-advised to focus on the future, if he is going to run for president again.”

Trump’s comments came after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, said he would reveal how Twitter engaged in “free speech suppression” leading up to the 2020 election. But files released Friday, which focused on the tech company’s confused response to a story about Biden’s son Hunter, do not show Democrats trying to limit the story.

The White House on Saturday assailed Trump, saying, “You cannot only love America when you win.”

“The American Constitution is a sacrosanct document that for over 200 years has guaranteed that freedom and the rule of law prevail in our great country,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation.”

Jeffries appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Turner spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and Lawler was on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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ATLANTA (AP) — Raphael Warnock is the first Black U.S. senator from Georgia, having broken the color barrier for one of the original 13 states with a special election victory in January 2021, almost 245 years after the nation’s founding.

Now he hopes to add another distinction by winning a full six-year term in a Tuesday runoff. Standing in the way is another Black man, Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Both men have common upbringings in the Deep South in the wake of the civil rights movement and would make history as the first Black person elected from Georgia to a full Senate term. Yet Warnock and Walker have cut different paths and offer clearly opposing visions for the country, including on race and racism.

Black voters say the choice is stark: Warnock, the senior minister of Martin Luther King’s Atlanta church, echoes traditional liberal notions of the Black experience; and Walker, a University of Georgia football icon, speaks the language of white cultural conservatism and mocks Warnock’s interpretations of King, among other matters.

“Republicans seem to have thought they could put up Herschel Walker and confuse Black folks,” said Bryce Berry, president of Georgia’s Young Democrats chapter and a senior at Morehouse College, a historically Black campus where both King and Warnock graduated.

Standing beneath a campus statue of King, Berry continued: “We are not confused.”

Other Black voters raised questions about Walker’s past — his false claims about his business and professional accomplishments, instances of violence against his ex-wife — and the way he stumbles over some public policy discussions as a candidate. Some said they believe GOP leaders are taking advantage of Walker’s fame as a beloved Heisman Trophy winner and national champion running back for the Georgia Bulldogs.

“How can you let yourself be used that way as a Black person?” asked Angela Heard, a state employee from Jonesboro. “I think you should be better in touch with your people instead of being a crony for someone.”

Even some Black conservatives who back Walker lament his candidacy as a missed opportunity to expand Republicans’ reach to a key part of the electorate that remains overwhelmingly Democratic.

“I don’t think Herschel Walker has enough relatable life experience to the average Black American for them to identify with him,” said Avion Abreu, a 34-year-old realtor who lives in Marietta and has supported Walker since the GOP primary campaign.

Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast in the November general election. AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,200 voters in the state, showed that Warnock won 90% of Black voters. Walker, meanwhile, won 68% of white voters.

VoteCast data in the 2021 runoff suggested that Black voters helped fuel Warnock’s victory over then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler, comprising almost a third of that electorate, slightly more than the Black share of the 2020 general electorate.

The senator’s campaign has said since then that he’d have to assemble a multiracial coalition, including many moderate white voters, to win reelection in a midterm election year. But they’ve not disputed that a strong Black turnout would be necessary regardless.

The Republican National Committee has answered with its own uptick in Black voter outreach, opening community centers in several heavily Black areas of the state. But the general election results raise questions about the effectiveness, at least for Walker.

Abreu said she believes Walker still can win the runoff but has to do it with the usual, overwhelmingly white GOP coalition moved by party loyalty and the 60-year-old candidate’s emphasis on cultural issues. His campaign, she said, “hasn’t told the full story of Herschel’s life and related that to people, with an explanation of how he is going to help them.”

Indeed, Walker and Warnock share their stories as Black men quite differently.

Warnock doesn’t often use phrases like “the Black church” or “the Black experience,” but infuses those institutions and ideas into his arguments.

The senator sometimes notes that others “like to introduce me and say I’m the first Black senator from Georgia.” He says Georgia voters “did an amazing thing” in 2021 but adds that it’s more about the policy results from a Democratic Senate. Born in 1969, he calls himself a “son of the civil rights movement.” He talks of King’s desire for “a beloved community,” an inclusive society Warnock says is anchored in the belief that “we all carry a spark of the divine.”

He touts his Senate work to combat maternal mortality, noting the issue is acute among Black women. He campaigns with Black fraternity and sorority alumni. And he tells of his octogenarian mother using her “hands that once picked somebody else’s cotton” to “cast a ballot for her youngest son to be a United States senator.”

“Only in America is my story possible,” he concludes.

Walker, alternately, is often more direct in identifying himself by race, usually with humor.

“You may have noticed I’m Black,” he tells audiences that are often nearly all-white. But that jovial aside is the precursor to his indictment of a society — and a political rival — he says are consumed by discussions of race and racism.

“My opponent say America ought to apologize for its whiteness,” Walker says in most campaign speeches, a claim based on some of Warnock’s sermons referencing institutional racism.

Walker invokes King — “a great man” — with a line from his 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” and accuses Warnock and “trying to divide us” by race. “He’s in a church where a man talked about the content of your character, not the color of your skin,” Walker told supporters in Canton on Nov. 10, his first rally of the runoff campaign. In Forsyth County last week, he blasted schools he insisted teach “Critical Race Theory.”

“Don’t let anyone tell you you’re racist,” he said in August at a “Women for Herschel” event, which included Alveda King, the conservative evangelical niece of the slain civil rights leader.

He blasts Warnock as anti-law enforcement but without any context about police killings of Black citizens. “What I want to do is get behind our men and women in blue,” Walker said in Forsyth.

Walker touts his “minority-owned food services company.” Talking to reporters at one fall campaign stop, he recalled being a freshman at the University of Georgia just a decade after the football program integrated with its first Black scholarship players. But when telling voters of his athletics and professional successes, he doesn’t allude to race, instead talking in terms of faith.

“The Lord blessed me,” he says of each milestone.

It’s a contrast to Warnock’s framing of growing up in public housing in Savannah, choosing Morehouse because of King, and receiving a Pell Grant for tuition assistance. “I’m talking about good public policy,” the senator says.

Doyal Siddell, a 66-year-old Black retiree from Douglasville, said Walker’s pitch is disconnected from many Black voters. “Just because you’re from the community doesn’t mean you understand the community,” he said.

It’s a contrast not entirely explained by partisan identity of philosophy.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s lone Black Republican, talks openly of his his family’s struggles through Jim Crow segregation, including his grandfather, who never learned to read or write, and he highlights his status as the only Black American in history elected to both the House and Senate.

“Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Scott said as a featured speaker of the 2020 Republican National Convention.

At Morehouse, Berry said Walker could find some Black conservatives and nonpartisans. But he’d have to show up and acknowledge his surroundings.

“You see the senator in the suburbs, in Republican areas,” Berry said. “Herschel Walker has not even been to our campus. He’s not running a campaign that suggests he wants to represent all Georgians.”

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Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

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ATLANTA (AP) — The extended Senate campaign in Georgia gives Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker a second chance to persuade voters to send them to Washington. But without party control of Congress at stake and absent other candidates on the ticket, the runoff looks different from the November general election.

The results of the AP VoteCast survey illustrate some of the challenges each candidate faces on Tuesday. Walker will need to turn out a GOP base that wasn’t enamored with him to start with, and do it without the more popular Gov. Brian Kemp on the ballot. Warnock must get his coalition of some lower-propensity voting groups to turn out.

And both candidates have to motivate voters despite a predetermined balance of power in Washington.

The wide-ranging VoteCast survey of more than 3,200 midterm voters in the state provides a detailed look at the Warnock and Walker coalitions and the attitudes that defined their choices this year. The data reveals advantages — and disadvantages — for both candidates in the runoff.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Fifty-four percent of Georgia midterm voters said they considered party control of the Senate to be the primary factor in their vote in the general election. But that’s no longer at stake.

Democrats flipped a Republican-held Senate seat in Pennsylvania to maintain their thin advantage in the chamber without relying on the outcome in Georgia.

In the general, many supporters of both candidates were motivated by party control, and they’ll need to be persuaded to vote a second time around when it doesn’t hang in the balance.

It’s a challenge for Walker in particular, whose supporters were slightly more likely than Warnock’s to say control of the Senate was their chief consideration, 57% vs. 52%. A Walker victory in the Senate would keep the 50-50 status quo, but Democrats maintain control with Vice President Kamala Harris ’ tie-breaking vote.

REPUBLICAN SUPPORT

Walker benefits from Georgia’s Republican-leaning tendencies, but Kemp didn’t carry Walker when they were both at the top of the ticket four weeks ago. In fact, Walker’s vote tallies fell more than 200,000 short of his fellow Republican’s, which might suggest he has a harder time getting Republicans out for him without Kemp on the ballot.

While 7 in 10 Kemp voters said they enthusiastically backed the governor, only about half of Walker’s voters said they were enthusiastically supporting Walker. Among Walker supporters, about 4 in 10 said they backed him with reservations and about 1 in 10 said they were simply opposing the other candidates.

“I’ve got some reservations, I’m not 100% Walker, but he is a hell of lot better than what we’ve got up there now with Warnock in there,” said Donny Richardson, a retired Marine who voted for Walker last week in Marietta. “Things need to change.”

Warnock has more work to do in a state that resoundingly reelected Kemp over two-time Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams and elected exclusively Republican statewide constitutional officers.

That’s especially true when Warnock may have been helped by Republicans who decided not to support Walker but showed up in the general to vote for other Republicans, including their governor. Fifteen percent of moderate and liberal Republicans backed Warnock. Eleven percent of Kemp voters supported Warnock or another candidate, including Libertarian Chase Oliver, compared with just 3% of Abrams voters bucking Warnock.

CONSTITUENCIES

Warnock and Walker both amassed familiar Democratic and Republican constituencies in last month’s election. But there were signs that Walker did worse than his fellow Republican Kemp among groups that were core to the governor’s success, including white voters and voters in small towns and rural areas. College-educated men and women without a college degree were evenly divided in the Senate race, but both groups went decisively for Kemp in the governor’s race.

And most white Protestant voters backed the Republican candidate in both races, but Kemp won them by a wider margin than Walker did.

Warnock won majorities of young voters, Black voters, women, college graduates and suburbanites. Warnock also picked up about two-thirds of ideologically moderate voters.

CHARACTER AND INTEGRITY

The final stretch of campaign featured harsh insults from each candidate on his competitor’s character and integrity. Voters in the general were more skeptical about Walker than Warnock, though neither candidate earned glowing marks.

Fifty-six percent of Georgia voters said the incumbent senator “has the right experience to serve effectively” in the job, compared with just 39% saying that of Walker, a 60-year-old political novice.

“I think Herschel Walker is incompetent and Raphael Warnock has more experience, and I think he’ll get the job done,” said Lolita Baylor, an executive assistant at JCPenney who lives in Morrow. She voted for Warnock.

Voters also were more likely to think Warnock has strong moral values compared with Walker, 53% vs. 43%.

Those critiques of Walker didn’t keep some voters from backing him the first time around, though it might eat into his support in a runoff. About a third of his own supporters said he didn’t have the right experience and about a quarter said he lacks strong moral values.

TRUMP LINGERS

Walker’s endorsement from former President Donald Trump helped him earn the party’s nomination, but that may have stunted his success among the state’s general electorate.

Biden’s razor-thin 2020 win in the state led Trump to falsely claim the results were rigged and to suggest Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes needed to hand Trump a victory. Georgia’s voters reelected Kemp and Raffensperger despite Trump’s attempts to promote other candidates.

While Walker overwhelmingly won midterm “MAGA” voters — those who say they support the “Make America Great Again” movement — 43% of voters last month said Walker supports Trump too much. Fewer said Kemp or Raffensperger supports Trump too much, though somewhat more said they support Trump too little.

“He’s not a politician,” said Kat Shreve of Walker. The nonprofit manager in Marietta backed Warnock. Walker’s “a puppet of the Trump administration,” she said.

Sixteen percent of Republican voters who don’t identify as MAGA supporters backed Warnock in the general.

Even if Trump is not the draw he once was, opposition to his rival might be enough for Walker to convince voters to get back to the ballot box.

Overall, only about half of Walker voters said their vote was meant to signify support for Trump, but far more — about three-quarters — said their vote was in opposition to President Joe Biden. Walker has stressed Warnock’s ties to the president throughout the campaign.

“Let’s just say he’s much better than the Biden guy. Warnock has been. ‘Yes sir, Mr. Biden,’” said Jim Howle, a retired voter for Walker. Warnock’s “not representing the people.”

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Fingerhut reported from Washington.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://www.ap.org/votecast.

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Today in History

Today is Monday, Dec. 5, the 339th day of 2022. There are 26 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Dec. 5, 2013, Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s first Black president, died at age 95.

On this date:

In 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.

In 1792, George Washington was reelected president; John Adams was reelected vice president.

In 1848, President James K. Polk triggered the Gold Rush of ’49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

In 1932, German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.

In 1933, national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

In 1952, the Great Smog of London descended on the British capital; the unusually thick fog, which contained toxic pollutants, lasted five days and was blamed for causing thousands of deaths.

In 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.

In 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.

on of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.

In 2009, a jury in Perugia, Italy convicted American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito (rah-fy-EHL’-ay soh-LEH’-chee-toh), of murdering Knox’s British roommate, Meredith Kercher, and sentenced them to long prison terms. (After a series of back-and-forth rulings, Knox and Sollecito were definitively acquitted in 2015 by Italy’s highest court.)

In 2018, former President George H.W. Bush was mourned at a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral attended by President Donald Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter along with their spouses; former president George W. Bush was among the speakers, eulogizing his dad as “the brightest of a thousand points of light.”

In 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she had asked the relevant House committee chairs to begin drawing up articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, saying his actions left them “no choice” but to act swiftly; in response, Trump tweeted that Democrats had “gone crazy.” (Trump would be impeached by the House on charges of obstruction and abuse of power, but the Senate voted to acquit in the first of two Trump impeachment trials.)

In 2020, at a Georgia rally where he urged supporters to turn out for a pair of Republican Senate candidates in a January runoff election, President Donald Trump spread baseless allegations of misconduct in the November voting in Georgia and beyond. Hours before the rally, according to officials with knowledge of the call, Trump asked Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to order a special legislative session to give him the state’s electoral votes, even though Joe Biden had won the majority of the vote; Kemp refused to do so.

Ten years ago: Port clerks ended an eight-day strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach after winning guarantees against the outsourcing of jobs. Jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck died in Norwalk, Connecticut, a day before he would have turned 92.

Five years ago: Democratic congressman John Conyers of Michigan resigned from Congress after a nearly 53-year career, becoming the first Capitol Hill politician to lose his job amid the sexual misconduct allegations sweeping through the nation’s workplaces. In a bitterly contested runoff election, Atlanta voters narrowly chose Keisha Lance Bottoms as the city’s next mayor; a result that would be upheld after a recount requested by rival Mary Norwood. The International Olympic Committee barred Russia and its sports leaders from the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea after concluding that members of the Russian government concocted a doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Games; some Russians would be able to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”

One year ago: Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veterans, died at 98. U.S. health officials said that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus was rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggested it could be less dangerous than the delta variant, which continued to drive a surge of hospitalizations. Buck O’Neil, a champion of Black ballplayers during a monumental, eight-decade career on and off the field, joined Minnie Miñoso, Gil Hodges and three others in being elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by veterans committees.

Today’s Birthdays: Author Calvin Trillin is 87. Actor Jeroen Krabbe (yeh-ROHN’ krah-BAY’) is 78. Opera singer Jose Carreras is 76. Musician and singer Jim Messina is 75. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL quarterback Jim Plunkett is 75. World Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins is 73. Actor Morgan Brittany is 71. Actor Brian Backer is 66. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Art Monk is 65. Country singer Ty England is 59. Rock singer-musician John Rzeznik (REZ’-nihk) (The Goo Goo Dolls) is 57. Country singer Gary Allan is 55. Comedian-actor Margaret Cho is 54. Writer-director Morgan J. Freeman is 53. Actor Alex Kapp Horner is 53. Actor Kali Rocha is 51. Rock musician Regina Zernay (Cowboy Mouth) is 50. Actor Paula Patton is 47. Actor Amy Acker is 46. Actor Nick Stahl is 43. Actor Adan Canto is 41. R&B singer Keri Hilson is 40. Actor Gabriel Luna is 40. Actor Frankie Muniz is 37. Actor Ross Bagley is 34. MLB outfielder Christian Yelich is 31.

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Republicans who lost their races for Michigan’s top three statewide offices after promoting falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election are not planning to go quietly.

Two of the candidates who denied President Joe Biden’s victory in the state have announced plans to run for the position that leads the state GOP, while the third has said she is considering a challenge for the top post.

That is raising concerns within the party after it suffered a drubbing in Michigan, a perennial political battleground that is poised to play a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential race. Their attempts to gain control of the party apparatus also show how far-right conservatives are trying to maintain their grip on the party’s grassroots at a time the GOP nationally is wrestling with its direction after lackluster midterm results.

Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who lost her race for secretary of state after mounting a campaign filled with election conspiracies, used the same kind of charged language she had throughout her campaign in announcing her intention to run for Michigan party chair.

In a statement posted this week to social media, she said the state Republican Party had begun operating as “mini-gangs instead of soldiers fighting for freedom,” and that the state was on “the precipice of tyranny, which voting alone will not be able to overcome.”

Instead of being afraid of attacks, she wrote, “we must strike fear in the heart of the enemy at the gate.”

The race for Michigan GOP chair, which will be decided at a February party convention, comes after Democrats took control of all levels of power for the first time since the 1980s. Democrats won control of both houses of the Legislature and defeated Republicans by significant margins for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

Many state and national Republicans have expressed concern that similar defeats could become commonplace without a course correction within the state Republican Party.

“It’s hard to think of a state where Republicans lost more than in Michigan,” said Stu Sandler, a national Republican consultant. The state party wasn’t the traditional partner it had been in the past, he said, in part due to a chair he described as not very active.

“The chair could be very important, particularly, because they have no statewide elected official or prominent Republican as a voice, and that’s something that chair could be under the right circumstances,” Sandler said.

In addition to Karamo, attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno has announced he will seek the position. Republican Tudor Dixon, who lost the governor’s race by 11 percentage points to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, said she also is considering running.

All three candidates were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and echoed his false claims of a stolen election — although Dixon pivoted away from her earlier statements after she won the Republican primary for governor.

“This race is unique because it’s the fruition of a very long battle between grassroots elements and the so-called establishment,” said John Sellek, a Republican consultant in Michigan. “For the first time, this race is a choice between multiple MAGA candidates, meaning the grassroots may have finally taken over.”

A state party memo written days after the Nov. 8 election, and shared on social media by Dixon, blamed the grassroots takeover for the Republicans’ midterm losses. Michigan GOP chief of staff Paul Cordes wrote that the party struggled due to a lack of “high quality, substantive candidates and well-funded campaigns.”

“Over the course of this cycle, the Michigan Republican Party operated within the political reality that President Trump was popular amongst our grassroots and a motivating factor for his supporters, but provided challenges on a statewide ballot, especially with independents and women in the midterm election,” Cordes wrote.

The memo also pointed to an abortion rights ballot proposal, which passed overwhelmingly, as one reason for the Democrats’ sweep. Candidates in the state also ran in new districts drawn by an independent citizens commission that had been created previously by votes, instead of the heavily gerrymandered districts that had been drawn by Republican lawmakers.

Dixon said in response that the memo was a “perfect example of what is wrong” with the party and that there is “an issue of leadership.”

Current chair Ron Weiser has said he will not seek reelection, while co-chair Meshawn Maddock has not announced whether she will run. Michigan Republican Party spokesperson Gustavo Portela said the party would have no further comment about the chair competition.

Similar to party conventions last spring, where delegates nominated DePerno and Karamo, the chair position will be chosen by county precinct delegates during the Feb. 18 convention. Jason Roe, a GOP consultant and county delegate, expects the delegates attending the convention to once again be grassroots activists that favor Trump-backed candidates.

“There is no way on God’s earth that the donors of the state would entrust a DePerno or Karamo with the resources needed to regain power,” said Roe. “There will have to be something done outside the traditional structure.”

With over two months remaining before the convention, some in the party still hope a candidate will emerge that can unite both the grassroots and establishment sides of the party.

Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who served as an ambassador to the Netherlands from 2018 to 2021, said during a recent interview that he’s considering running. State Sen. Tom Barrett, who lost the 7th Congressional District race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, also has been pushed by Republicans to seek the position, according to spokesman Jason Roe.

DePerno said he believes he can unite both sides of the party. In an interview Friday, he said the party needs to be rebuilt to “bring together the grassroots activists with the legacy donor class.”

“The legacy donors, although they didn’t want to publicly support candidates that they thought were associated with Donald Trump, they did support me at least through third party PACs,” DePerno said.

The former tax lawyer rose to prominence in the party by pushing Trump’s lies of a stolen election in the state following the 2020 presidential election. A special prosecutor is currently reviewing whether to criminally charge DePerno and others for attempting to gain access to voting machines after that election.

Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the “biggest gift the Republicans can continue to give us” is infighting within the state party and nominating candidates who are ”crazy and right of crazy.”

“Looking at this group of folks who are interested in running for chair, I think we might see a little bit of the same in terms of the kind of candidates that these folks would support,” Barnes said. “And I think that will help us hold the legislature going forward.”

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Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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When members of the small Pennsylvania chapter of Secular Democrats of America log on for their monthly meetings, they’re not there for a virtual happy hour.

“We don’t sit around at our meetings patting ourselves on the back for not believing in God together,” said David Brown, a founder from the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore.

The group, mostly consisting of atheists and agnostics, mobilizes to knock on doors and make phone calls on behalf of Democratic candidates “who are pro-science, pro-democracy, whether or not they are actually self-identified secular people,” he said. “We are trying to keep church and state separate. That encompasses LGBTQIA+, COVID science, bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.”

Brown describes his group as “small but mighty,” yet they’re riding a big wave.

Voters with no religious affiliation supported Democratic candidates and abortion rights by staggering percentages in the 2022 midterm elections.

And they’re voting in large numbers. In 2022, some 22% of voters claimed no religious affiliation, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide. They contributed to voting coalitions that gave Democrats victories in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona.

The unaffiliated — often nicknamed the “nones” — voted for Democratic House candidates nationwide over Republicans by more than a 2-1 margin (65% to 31%), according to VoteCast. That echoes the 2020 president election, when Democrat Joe Biden took 72% of voters with no religious affiliation, while Republican Donald Trump took 25%, according to VoteCast.

For all the talk of the overwhelmingly Republican voting by white evangelical Christians in recent elections, the unaffiliated are making their presence felt.

Among all U.S. adults, 29% are nones — those who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” — according a 2021 report by the Pew Research Center. That’s up 10 percentage points from a decade earlier, according to Pew. And the younger the adults, the more likely they are to be unaffiliated, according to a 2019 Pew analysis, further signaling the growing clout of the nones.

“People talk about how engaged white evangelicals are, but you don’t know the half of it,” said Ryan Burge, a professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who focuses on the interaction of religious and political behavior.

Atheists and agnostics form only a subset of nones and are less numerous than evangelicals. But they are more likely than evangelicals to make a campaign donation, attend a political meeting or join a protest, Burge said, citing the Harvard-affiliated Cooperative Election Study.

“When you consider how involved they are in political activity, you realize how important they are at the ballot box,” he said.

The nones equaled Catholics at 22% of the electorate, though they were barely half the figure for Protestants and other Christians (43%), according to VoteCast. Other religious groups totaled 13%, including 3% Jewish and 1% Muslim.

Separately, 30% of voters identified as born again or evangelical Christians.

In several bellwether races this year, the secular vote made its impact felt, according to AP VoteCast.

__About four in five people with no religious affiliation voted against abortion restrictions in referendums in Michigan and Kentucky.

__Between two-thirds and three-quarters of nones supported Democratic candidates in statewide races in Arizona and Wisconsin.

__About four in five people with no religion voted for Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman, the Democrats elected Pennsylvania’s newest governor and senator, respectively.

While Shapiro openly speaks about his Jewish values motivating his public service, Fetterman has not incorporated any discernible religious tradition in his public statements. He often frames issues in ethical terms— such as promoting criminal justice reform and raising the minimum wage, even calling abortion rights “sacred” — without reference to a religious tradition.

Fetterman’s campaign did not return a request for comment.

The secular population is a diverse group, Pew reported in 2021. Two-thirds identify as “nothing in particular” — a group that is alienated from politics as well as religion, Burge said.

But atheists and agnostics, though only a third of the nones, punch above their weight, given their heavy involvement in politics.

The twin trends of a growing secular cohort among Democrats and the increased religiosity of Republicans are not coincidental.

Several prominent Republican candidates and their supporters have promoted Christian nationalism, which fuses an American and Christian sense of identity, mission and symbols.

That prompts a reaction by many secular voters, Burge said: “At least among white people, it’s become clear the Democratic Party has become the party for the non-religious people.”

Yet it’s not their party alone. The Democratic coalition draws heavily from religious groups — Black Protestants, liberal Jews, Catholics of color. The Black church tradition, in particular, has a highly devout base in support of moderate and progressive policies.

“I think the Democrats have the biggest problem in the world because they have to keep atheists and Black Protestants happy at the same time,” Burge said.

Tensions surfaced in 2019 when the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution praising the religiously unaffiliated in language that some saw as overstating their clout and denigrating religious values.

Differences between secular and religious Democrats showed up in VoteCast. Majorities of Democratic voters across all religious affiliations say abortion should be legal at least most of the time, but 6 in 10 Democratic voters unaffiliated with a religion say it should always be legal, compared with about 4 in 10 Democratic voters affiliated with Christian traditions. In general, 69% of Democratic voters unaffiliated with a religion identify as liberal, compared with 46% of Christians who voted for Democrats.

But growing secular constituency doesn’t worry Bishop William Barber, a leader in one of the nation’s most prominent faith-based progressive movements.

“Jesus didn’t worry about it, so why would I?” said Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach, which calls for moral advocacy by faith and other leaders on behalf of the poor, immigrants and other marginalized communities. “Jesus said the one who is not against me is for me.”

“We have a lot of people who claim they’re agnostic or atheist, and they will come to our rallies,” said Barber, who is also co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “They will say, ‘I don’t necessarily believe in God, but I believe in right. I believe in love. I do believe in justice.’”

Brown, of the Secular Democrats group in Pennsylvania, said he had no problem supporting Democratic candidates like Shapiro, who talked openly about his Jewish values on the campaign trail. His opponent, Republican Doug Mastriano, incorporated Christian nationalist themes and imagery in his campaign.

“While on the one hand I am frustrated that politicians feel the need to justify their doing the right thing by religious affiliation, I also appreciate that this was a calculated decision to appeal to religious voters,” Brown said. “I have no problem with it because I feel it was in the service of defeating a Christian nationalist candidate on the other side.”

In fact, Brown even traveled to Georgia in late November to campaign door-to-door for an ordained minister — Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democrat in a runoff election. And for the same reason — despite religious differences, he sees Warnock as sharing many of the values of secular voters.

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AP polling director Emily Swanson contributed from Washington.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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