Republican Herschel Walker is holding a slight overall lead in Georgia's runoff race for the U.S. Senate over incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock before their runoff election on Dec. 6, according to current polling averages, but the average doesn't include the results of a recent poll that gives Warnock the nod.
A RealClear Politics average shows Walker ahead by an average of 1.9 percentage points.
However, the results of an AARP poll released Tuesday, puts Warnock ahead by 4 percentage points but giving Walker the nod among older voters.
In the AARP poll, Walker, a former NFL football star and Heisman Trophy, winner is ahead up by 9 points with voters aged 50 or older. Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church since 2005, led by 24 percentage points with voters ages 18-49 in the poll.
Meanwhile, Walker is facing accusations of alleged "election fraud" after reports he had gotten a tax exemption for his home in Dallas, Texas, while he was running for the Senate in Georgia, reports Newsweek.
According to an analysis of tax records by CNN, Walker received a homestead tax exemption for property in Dallas, which saved him about $1,500 in taxes.
The 2020 Georgia code says state residence can be pulled back if a person moves to another state intending to make it their permanent residence. A tax official from Tarrant County, where Walker's Dallas home is located, confirmed to CNN that the former NFL running back claimed a principal residence tax exemption for the property in both 2021 and 2022.
Georgia has 15 rules that are considered for establishing residency, but not all must be met. Meanwhile, the U.S. Constitution requires just that a potential senator lives in the state where they are elected.
Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis said the state's laws on residence are flexible and that Walker could face a bigger political problem than a legal one.
"Where Walker can be painted as a carpetbagger, it does call into question whether Walker’s change of residency was made in good faith," he said.
Meanwhile, former Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost her runoff election to Warnock in January 2021, urged voters to pick Walker, touting his Election Day turnoff despite an advantage in Democrat spending in the race, Fox News reported Thursday.
"Herschel has been working so hard," Loeffler said. "He's going to stand up and defend our Georgia values, our American values. He's working every day, so I'm right there alongside him making sure that we get the vote out."
Turnout will prove key in getting Walker elected, Loeffler said.
"Herschel Walker got outspent by over $70 million and there's only a 35,000 vote difference in a state of seven-and-a-half million registered voters. So, it is vital that turnout is ours this time," she said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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