The last Senate race of 2022 was finally decided Tuesday evening as Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock edged out his GOP challenger Herschel Walker in the runoff election. Warnock’s win means his party has now done the once unthinkable in a midterm election that should have benefitted Republicans given there’s a Democrat in the White House with sagging approval ratings and a struggling economy — netting one seat to break their 50-50 stalemate to give them a 51-49 majority heading into the 118th Congress.

Democrats’ strong showing came in spite of President Biden’s numbers and showed that — although Senate elections have increasingly become more parliamentary in nature — candidate quality still clearly matters. Walker, a former star UGA running back and Heisman Trophy winner, was part of a cadre of weak Republican candidates with heaps of personal baggage who were backed by former President Trump who ultimately lost imminently winnable races.

It wasn’t just that Walker was endorsed by Trump, but the football great most likely wouldn’t even be running without the former president’s heavy urging in

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