A Georgia election official said early Wednesday morning that it is “safe to say” there will be a Senate runoff election in the state.
“While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the US Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6,” Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia secretary of state’s chief operating officer, said on Twitter.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) held a slim lead over Republican challenger Herschel Walker with about 98 percent of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning.
However, Warnock had not breached the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff in the Peach State, meaning the two will likely face off once again on Dec. 6. The AP has yet to officially call the race.
Warnock and Walker were locked in a tight race for most of the midterm election.
Questions about Walker’s chances were raised in October amid allegations from multiple women that the staunch anti-abortion candidate previously pressured them to obtain abortions, and in one instance paid for the procedure, but the former NFL star regained ground on Warnock in polling during the final weeks of the campaign.
An NBC exit poll on Tuesday found that two-thirds of Georgia voters said that they believe Walker does not have good judgment. However, 44 percent also said they viewed Warnock as “too extreme.”
The race is expected to be key in determining control of the Senate, with multiple races for the upper chamber still unresolved as of Wednesday morning.
Updated at 7:35 a.m.