Liberty County voters backed Democrats across the board in state constitutional officers races, even as Republicans maintained control of each position.
Liberty voters went for incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock by nearly 2-to-1 over Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Warnock captured more than 62% of the vote, 9,604, to Walker’s 35.7%, or 5,487 votes.
Neither Warnock nor Walker has reached the 50% plus one level needed to avoid a runoff as of Wednesday morning. A runoff will be held December 6. Georgia law requires the winner to get a majority of the votes and not just the most votes.
Stacey Abrams, who made Midway one of her last campaign stops, took 59.9% of the votes cast in Liberty County, 9,225. Gov. Brian Kemp, who won statewide by nearly 8 percentage points, received 6,066 votes.
Republican incumbents seeking a return to statewide offices all won their battles — attorney general Chris Carr, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and superintendent of schools Richard Woods. John King, appointed to insurance commissioner when Gov. Kemp suspended Jim Beck, won election to the post.
King beat Janice Laws Robinson, who took more than 60% of the votes cast in Liberty County.
Carr won a second full term as attorney general, having been appointed to the post in 2016 by then. Gov Nathan Deal. Carr beat former state Sen. Jen Jordan, who took nearly 60.5% of the votes cast in Liberty County.
Woods, who fended off a challenge from former state superintendent John Barge in the Republican primary, kept his seat against Democrat challenger Alisha Thomas Searcy, a former state representative. Searcy claimed more than 60.2% of the votes in Liberty County.
Raffensperger, who faced several challengers in the Republican primary, beat former state lawmaker Bee Nguyen for a second term. Nguyen collected more than 58% of the Liberty County votes.
Three statewide offices were open when the incumbents chose either not to run again or ran for another office. Tyler Harper won the spot of agriculture commissioner, which had been held by Gary Black. Black gave up the office to run for the U.S. Senate. Harper defeated Nakita Hemingway, who outpolled Harper 9,022-5,834 in Liberty County.
Burt Jones relinquished his seat in the state Senate to run for lieutenant governor and won the seat against Democrat Charlie Bailey. The seat became open when Geoff Duncan, elected in 2018, chose not to seek re-election. Bailey received 59.3% of the votes in Liberty County.
Bruce Thompson won the labor commissioner position, which was vacated when Mark Butler decided to run again. He beat William “Will” Boddie Jr., who had 59.5% of the votes in Liberty County.
