Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) leads Republican Herschel Walker by 3 points in the race for Georgia’s Senate seat, according to a new poll.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Georgia News Collaborative poll showed Warnock leading within the 3-point margin of error, 46 percent to 43 percent.
The poll’s release comes after The Daily Beast first reported that Walker paid for his then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. The Beast later reported that the woman who made the original claim said that she was the mother to one of Walker’s children, after Walker said he had never met her. Walker has denied that he paid for the woman’s abortion.
However, the AJC said that the controversy has had limited impact on this poll because it was conducted before the revelations.
Walker has run on a platform opposed to abortion access with no exceptions.
Libertarian Chase Oliver received 4 percent support in the poll, while 6 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided.
Candidates for state and federal office in Georgia must win a majority of the vote to win an election, so neither Warnock nor Walker have enough support in the poll to have won outright without a runoff.
The poll found that Warnock benefits from split-ticket voting in the state governor’s race.
A survey of that race found incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R) leads Democrat Stacey Abrams by 10 points. But 9 percent of Kemp’s voters said they support Warnock, and 5 percent said they plan to vote for Oliver.
Only 1 percent of Abrams’s voters said they support Walker.
The poll also showed Warnock regaining some lost ground with women and independents from a University of Georgia poll taken last month. He led among independents by 25 points in last month’s poll but expanded his lead to more than 40 points in this poll.
Warnock also increased his lead among Black voters, gaining 12 points to have support from 89 percent.
Polls have consistently shown Warnock with tight leads over Walker, but they have not yet completely shown the potential effects of the abortion controversy on polling.
Walker has claimed he learned who the woman who made the accusations was on Friday but said she never told him about having an abortion and that he never paid for one.
The poll was conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4 among 1,030 likely voters. The margin of error was 3.1 points.