Once again, a U.S. Senate race in Georgia is heading to a runoff election, with control of the chamber – and possibly Congress – potentially on the line.

The top two candidates in Tuesday’s race — Incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker — will advance to a runoff election on Dec. 6 since neither candidate received 50% of the vote which is required under state law, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Wednesday.

"There's one race in our state that is going to be moving to the December 6 runoff," he said. "That is the race for the United States Senate, between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. Our office has already begun the behind-the-scenes work to start building the ballots."

"It's a lot of work, but that's how the machinery of our democratic republic works," Raffensperger added. "We welcome it, because we know at the end of the day, everyone wants to know that we have honest and fair elections. And we do ask the voters to come out and vote one last time."

Voters can request absentee ballots for the runoff through Nov. 28, Raffensperger said, and early voting must also begin no later than Nov. 28; individuals can also vote in person on December's Election Day less than a month from now. 

It’s a familiar position for Warnock, who was first elected to the Senate on Jan. 5, 2021, in a runoff election after neither he nor then-incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler garnered a majority of the vote in the general election on Nov. 3, 2020. Warnock ultimately won the race to fill the remaining two years of Republican Johnny Isaacson’s term by roughly 93,000 votes.

“We're not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there's still a little work yet to do,” Warnock told voters in the early morning hours of Wednesday. “I understand that at this late hour you may be a little tired, but whether it's later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia.”

Similarly, Walker urged his supporters to "hang in there a little bit longer." 

"I’m telling you right now: I didn’t come to lose," he added.

As of Wednesday, Warnock leads Walker by roughly 35,000 votes. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver garnered a little more than 81,000 votes.

Looking back on 2020, victories from Warnock and his de facto “running mate,” Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., gave Democrats their 50-50 majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie breaking vote.

Amid generationally high inflation and with Biden’s popularity lagging in Georgia, Warnock wants voters to make a localized choice, not a national referendum on Democrats as a whole. Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, Warnock pitches himself as a pragmatist who cuts deals with Republicans when they’re willing and pushes Democratic-backed cost-cutting measures when they’re not. Among the top accomplishments Warnock touts: capping the cost of insulin and other drugs for Medicare recipients.

“I’ll work with anybody to get things done for the people of Georgia,” Warnock said.

Walker, meanwhile, denies that he’s ever paid for an abortion. And glossing over a cascade of other stories — documented exaggerations of his business record, academic achievements and philanthropic activities; publicly acknowledging three additional children during the campaign only after media reports on their existence — Walker touts his Christian faith and says his life is a story of “redemption.”

Through the scrutiny he calls “foolishness,” the Republican nominee has campaigned as a cultural and fiscal conservative. Walker, who is also Black, pledges to “bring people together” while framing Warnock as a divisive figure on matters of race and equality. Walker justifies his attack using snippets of Warnock’s sermons in which the pastor-senator discusses institutional racism.

Republicans used similar tactics against Warnock ahead of his runoff victory on Jan. 5, 2021. Warnock won that contest by about 95,000 votes out of 4.5 million cast.

In-person voter turnout on Election Day this year was slightly lower than anticipated, Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling said Wednesday, with numbers likely hovering just above 1.4 million, lower than the 2 million he had hoped for. 

"Negative campaigns tend to depress turnout. And I think all of us who live in this state might have seen a handful of negative ads, especially around the Senate race," Sterling posited as to why turnout was not as high as expexted. "So psychologically speaking, we can't speak to exactly why it was lower. But I think that's probably a large part of it, a lot of people threw up their hands and said, 'I don't want to deal with any of this stuff.'"

Runoff dynamics this year would vary widely depending on the Senate makeup. If the Senate majority already has been settled, it could make it easier for Warnock to frame the race as a localized choice between himself and Walker. But if the Georgia outcome determines which party will hold a majority and set the agenda, Walker could have the upper-hand in his effort to tie Warnock to Biden and national Democrats.

Georgia’s other high-profile race, the 2018 gubernatorial rematch between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was decided quickly, with the GOP incumbent surpassing 53% of the vote.