Raphael Warnock, the Democratic senator from Georgia, defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker on Tuesday night, handing president Joe Biden’s party a major political victory in a crucial US Senate run-off that expanded its majority in the upper chamber of Congress.

Three and a half hours after the polls had closed, the Associated Press called the race for Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church who was first elected to the Senate in January 2021. With 94 per cent of votes counted, Warnock led Walker, a political novice and former American football star, by a one-point margin.

Shortly before the race was called, Biden expressed confidence in the result, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews: “We’re going to win. We’re going to win Georgia.”