georgia believe about the right of women to choose whether or not they want to continue a pregnancy. 68% of georgia voters in a poll your newspaper did oppose overturning roe v. wade. in the general, when you look at that small number of middle suburb voters, many of them women, can that make a difference? yes. that is hugely, hugely important. that is a dynamic not anticipated in the senate race until that leaked memo came out. depending on what the opinion says, and we still don t know. if it s on the table that roe v. wade will be overturned and it s on the table that the u.s. senate is going to make those decisions and the governor is going to sign a bill to totally ban abortion, that s a total game-changer in this state. georgia las a conservative republican base, but it is also full of obviously very progressive democrats, but this big middle of people who moved here for corporate jobs, people who moved here to be educated,
candidates ahead of what s going to be a consequential general election. nbc s blayne alexander is in atlanta and just spoke with stacey abrams. talk about the mood and what did stacey abrams tell you? reporter: we asked her about a number of things. i asked her about the fact that after tonight she s officially going to become the democratic nominee for governor in the state of georgia and what that means for her campaign, is she going to shift into a new gear? she said, yes, we are going to be entering a new phase. here is a little bit more on what she told me. we ll talk on the other side. the campaign i m running is about one georgia, traveling the state, talking to georgians and understanding there s incredible pain in this state, that families are struggling and they re worried. there s also extraordinary promise in the state, that more can be done. we can do the work of serving every single georgian, but only if we have new leadership that actually cares about georgia.
because i think we might have a bit of movement. we re going to try and see maybe if we can briefly talk to herschel walker as he heads in. senator raphael warnock voted early, about two weeks ago. this is a state where early voting broke records. more than 850,000 georgians voted early here, that s up 212% compared to 2020. there you see the candidate with his wife julie walking this way. a lot of people voted early including warnock. herschel walker voting for the first time today. how are you feeling, mr. walker? how are you doing? i m all right. reporter: we re going to let him get to voting and ask him questions.
humans and dinosaurs can coexist. i could use your expertise. we re on the verge of extinction. let s all try to stay positive. we are back live in georgia. tonight herschel walker, the former nfl running back, a man who newt gingrich has called the future of the republican party, is the overwhelming favorite to win the georgia republican senate primary and almost certain to face incumbent senator raphael warnock. walker has not participated in a single debate. he believes abortion should be illegal, no exceptions. he s got incredible name recognition and got the endorsement of donald trump.
the election was stolen. donald trump told them that. david purdue is telling them that. those are going to be the voters that 35%, 40% who do go for david purdue. but brian kemp is showing you don t have to buy into that, you don t have to push that big lie in order to be successful as a republican governor and a very conservative republican state. it s a battleground state, but it s a conservative base. he s finding a way to sort of threat that needle. you don t have to buy into that to keep your job. i think that s going to be a big message for republicans around the country. you two know this state much better than i do. i have to say as an outside observer fascinated by georgia politics, what s happened to purdue what are the polls? the latest fox news poll shows him down 32 points. the real clear politics average, down by 22 points.