raphael warnock, the democratic incumbent defeating his republican challenger herschel walker. steve kornacki, we know with the result is now. we have been watching with you over the course of the night over as the results come in. what can you tell us about how this ultimately came down? what was the bottom line story here about how warnock won? yeah. i think there are a couple of stories within this here. you start with the core democratic strength which is this immediate atlanta metro area here. it is where warnock, you remember he finished first, he did not get over 50% but he finished first in the preliminary and this is the area that powered him in the preliminary. we are almost all in fulton county right now but i mean, warnock is sitting at 76. 5%, just compare that to how he ran in fulton county. this is atlanta, the biggest in the state, back in november he had 73 and a half percent of fulton county then. this was a great number for warnock in november, and he improves on i
election like this. i say we are being reductive in that because i think we often present it as an either or. and now looks like the way that senator warnock won this reelection was by doing both and almost in equal measure. is that fair? you are absolutely right, we do not have the luxury to pick and choose voters, we need people where they are, and that includes the urban dwellers in atlanta, the moderate somewhat i d like to call the pearl necklace around rural atlanta. and i grew up on a farm in rural alabama. we meet people where they are. nikema williams, the chair of the democratic party of georgia, i told you that we would have to say goodbye when your senator walked out onto the stage, and here he is. congresswoman congresswoman williams, congratulations tonight. tonight, america, you are looking at the newly reelected democrat u. s. senator from the state of georgia, the reverend raphael warnock. let s hear what he has to say. [crowd
night long. democrats will now have a clear majority in the senate with a 51 seats. let s bring back in tonight, jason johnson, a politics and journalistm professor at university, and at morgan state university and msnbc political contributor. he joins us live from warnock s campaign party. jason, you have been there all night talking about the enthusiasm, the excitement. they have got to be happier than ever right now. oh yeah, stephanie! the real party is a starting now! people are breaking out, going upstairs, going downstairs, cheering. i gotta tell you, stephanie, this was a national election. so you had people, while the results were coming in, texting their friends in california and michigan, pennsylvania, and telling with them what s happening on the ground. you had celebrities, a lot of african american celebrities showing up because they wanted to be a part of tonight s celebration. it is going to be a party throughout the city of atlanta for the next day to have. don t be
finish, it looks, like above where he finished in november. if you place where he finished in this was a huge one for him. gwinnett county, one of the biggest growing counties in the state, again, right outside of atlanta, he finished just under 59% in november tonight, he is just over 62%. this was a great number for warnock back in november, this was an even better number for him tonight. so, in these core democratic areas, he didn t just to the numbers he needed, he exceeded them. so this was one problem for walker right away, he needed warnock to underperform the core atlanta metro area, that didn t happen. the other thing that walker was counting on was again, if you look back at that november general election, in georgia if you took the senate race out of it, it was a good night for republicans in georgia back in november. brian kemp got reelected, brad raffensperger got reelected, they won statewide elections. the one who is lagging behind all the other republicans was herschel
about the policies that people want to see over the long term. and that is what this long term relational organizing is about. campaigns come and go, we are going to be here, three 65, 365, regardless! teaching people the importance a voting and we connect them to the electoral process. we often hear that people get motivated to about because they are angry, because they are last, out because they want something different. rachel, in many instances, tonight, we re people voting for raphael warnock, because he s delivering? because they are doing well? because if you look at the economy, in georgia, in many cases, it s doing better than other parts of the country. think about the port of savannah, city of atlanta, it s extraordinary the success that they ve had. so are a lot of people voting because they are saying, this is going well for me and i want more of it. yeah, i mean it come it s incumbent on campaigns and candidates to convey that message, and i think the warnock campai