Steve Bannon asked whether Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has "any momentum" on Friday as early voting takes place in the final few days before a statewide runoff election.
Bannon, a former strategist for Donald Trump, was speaking to radio host John Fredericks on his War Room series when he brought up Walker's bid for the U.S. Senate. He noted that recent polls have shown Walker trailing his Democratic opponent, incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, and asked about the state of the race.
Fredericks responded that both Democrats and Republicans were getting out to the polls in the early voting period, the last day of which was Friday.
The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a release that 1,054,605 voters had cast their ballots ahead of the runoff as of Thursday morning, a total that will have increased since then.
"We need a massive turnout on game day," Fredericks said. "That's what it's getting down to because Herschel is behind right now."
Under Georgia election law, when no candidates in a general election race receive a majority of votes, the top two candidates who received the most votes must take part in a runoff election.
This was the case for Walker and Warnock in the November 8 midterm elections, when neither managed to get more than 50 percent of the vote. Warnock did receive a slightly higher percentage, 49.43 percent, than Walker, 48.5 percent.
The runoff will take place on Tuesday, giving voters the final say on which candidate they'll send to a seat in the U.S. Senate. Though Republicans were able to flip control of the U.S. House to a red majority, Democrats managed to hold a slim advantage in the Senate.
As of Friday, Democrats (and the two independents who caucus with Democrats) held 50 seats in the 100-member Senate, and the GOP held 49.
A victory from Warnock will give Democrats a slightly larger majority, while a victory from Walker would evenly divide the upper chamber of Congress. Democrats would still have an edge in case of a Walker victory since Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has the tiebreaker vote.
Bannon said while speaking to Fredericks on Friday that he hadn't seen "massive outreach" from Walker to Trump's MAGA (Make America great again) base. Walker was endorsed by Trump, but the former president has been notably absent from the battleground state.
On the flip side, former Democratic President Barack Obama has stumped for Warnock in Georgia before both the November 8 and runoff votes.
While speaking at an event on Thursday, Obama said that he did not believe Walker, a former NFL player, had "the confidence, the character, the track record of service that would justify him representing Georgia in the United States Senate."
Newsweek reached out to Walker's campaign for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more
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