Washington (AFP) - One is a pastor, the other a scandal-hit football star: Georgia's Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will face off in December for a US Senate seat that could swing the balance of power in Congress.
Neither of the African American candidates earned more than 50 percent in Tuesday's midterm election, forcing a runoff on December 6
While they are both natives of Georgia, the men are polar opposites.
The 53-year-old Warnock, the Democrat candidate, is the current senator.He won his seat in a January 2021 runoff election that helped secure his party's control of the Senate and made him the first Black senator from Georgia, a southern state with a painful history of segregation.
Even after his election, Warnock remained as senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr once preached.He holds a doctorate in theology.
The eleventh of 12 children, Warnock grew up in poverty in social housing in the coastal city of Savannah.His father was a former soldier and preacher, and his mother worked in the cotton fields.
"Only in America," Warnock once remarked on his rise from humble beginnings to the US Senate.
However, the incumbent senator struggled in his only debate against Walker and has been accused of lacking charisma.
Trump's candidate
The Black conservative Herschel Walker is a latecomer to politics with his 2022 Senate run and has been endorsed by controversial former US president Donald Trump.
The 60-year-old is considered one of the best players in the history of American college football -- a near-religious institution in the South -- and holds several records.
The former running back with the University of Georgia became a fan favorite after propelling the Georgia Bulldogs to victory in 1980.His professional career contained fewer highlights, although he spent three years with the New Jersey Generals, which Trump owned.
After he retired from professional sport in 1997, he turned to business, notably the distribution of chicken products.
In a memoir published in 2008, Walker explains that he was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder -- in which an individual has two or more identities -- although he has since said he has recovered from the mental illness.
"Despite the acclaim he won as a football legend, track star, Olympic competitor, and later a successful businessman, Herschel realized that his life, at times, was simply out of control," reads the back cover of his book.
"He often felt angry, self-destructive, and unable to connect meaningfully with friends and family."
Abortion scandal
Despite their differences, both men have been the subject of unsavory scandals.
During the campaign, a woman accused Walker -- who is staunchly anti-abortion, even in cases of rape -- of encouraging her to have an abortion in 1991 while he was married to someone else.
A second woman claimed she had had an abortion during a relationship with Walker, and later refused to have a second, resulting in a child who is now 10 years old and has only seen his father three times.
During a disastrous campaign, Walker was forced to admit to having three children outside of his marriage, while also battling accusations of domestic violence, and being blasted by one of his sons on social media for being a terrible father.
Meanwhile, in 2020, Warnock's ex-wife accused him of driving over her foot with his car during an argument in the midst of their divorce.However, police and medical personnel at the scene said there was no sign of injury.
