Democrats will take control of the U.S. Senate by a 51-49 margin after Raphael Warnock prevailed Tuesday over Republican Herschel Walker in a midterm runoff election.

Major news outlets, including the Fox News Channel, projected Warnock would win around 9:30 p.m. CT against the former Dallas Cowboys star running back.

“Thank you, Georgia,” Warnock said in his victory speech. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and to God be the glory for the great things He has done.

“After a hard-fought campaign, or should I say campaigns, it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy — the people have spoken,” added Warnock, who was elected to a full six-year term.

The race was a cliffhanger as early votes came in. A 50-50 split held until Democrat-leaning counties around metro Atlanta came in heavily for the incumbent late Tuesday night.

With 97% of precincts reporting, Warnock had 1,721,057 votes (50.6%) to Walker’s 1,680,557 (49.3%).

Walker conceded defeat in a speech to supporters at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.

“You never stop dreaming,” Walker said. “Continue to pray and support America.”

“There’s no excuses in life,” he added. “We put up a heck of a fight. The best thing I have done in my entire life was running for this Senate seat because I got to know all of you.”

The runoff was mandated by Georgia law after neither Warnock nor Walker won more than half of the vote in the November general election.

In 2020, Warnock was involved in another runoff. He edged Republican Kelly Loeffler in one Georgia Senate race, and Democrat Jon Ossoff prevailed in another, splitting the chamber 50-50 between parties with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaker vote.

What’s the difference between 50 and 51 seats?

“The answer is a lot,” former Democratic President Barack Obama said. “Let me break it down for you. An extra senator gives Democrats more breathing room on important bills. It prevents one person from holding out everything.”

The runoff was light on issues and heavy on personal attacks. Late in the campaign, Warnock, a minister at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, criticized Walker’s intelligence and fitness for the job.

“The people of Georgia deserve a serious person to represent them at serious times,” Warnock told reporters as he voted Monday.

The former Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Georgia, meanwhile, told voters that Warnock was a rubber stamp for President Joe Biden.

Biden said last week that Walker was not qualified for the Senate.

“When you have a president talking about the biggest threat to democracy, it [seems to be] electing a Republican. But I want everyone that is listening to me, the biggest threat to democracy is to have him at the White House,” Walker told Fox News.

Walker was also criticized for his stance on abortion and for continuing to live in Texas while running for the Senate seat in Georgia.

Officials said voter turnout was a record for a midterm election. More than 1.9 million people voted early, followed by another 1.3 million on Election Day.

The Georgia Senate campaign was costly. Warnock outspent Walker $45 million to $24 million on radio and TV advertising.