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In Georgia’s already contentious Senate race, Friday’s debate between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Savannah will provide the highest stakes moment yet.
The Senate contest, one of the most competitive in the country and key to winning control of the chamber, has been scrambled in recent days by news reports that Walker, a conservative who supports a full federal abortion ban with no exceptions, allegedly paid for a woman to terminate her pregnancy and then, two years later, encouraged the same woman to have the procedure a second time. Walker has denied the allegations, which have not been independently confirmed by CNN.
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With those allegations weighing on the Senate race, Democrats and Republicans alike view the debate as a potentially decisive hour, when both candidates will have a chance to sway the tiny sliver of remaining undecided voters.
“Both candidates know well that this debate could be make or break for the entire election – the stakes really could not be higher,” Randy Evans, a Republican strategist who co-wrote a guidebook in 2020 on winning political debates, told CNN.
Much of the pressure is on Walker, a political newcomer who has never before stood on a debate stage. A poll released this week by Quinnipiac University found Warnock with 52% support among likely voters, compared to 45% for Walker. Friday night’s showdown – the only debate both candidates agreed to take part in – could be the Republican’s last chance to speak out, before a primetime audience, about the recent accusations against him.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/politics/georgia-senate-debate-preview/index.html
