Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, are statistically tied in the runup to the midterm elections next week, one of the nation’s most crucial contests which could change which party controls the U.S. Senate.

According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/UGA survey released Monday, Oct. 21, Warnock and Walker each held 45 percent of the support from state respondents who say they plan to vote in the election.

Along party lines, 93 percent of registered Democrats said they would vote for Warnock, who is pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, while 86 percent of registered Republicans said they would support Walker, a former University of Georgia Heisman Trophy winner and NFL running back, who has never held public office before.

The political race between the two men has taken a back seat to controversy surrounding Walker, who has had two women accuse him of trying to coerce them into getting abortions in the past. His own son, Christian, who has defended him in the past  took to social media last month, blasting Walker over his past relationship with his mother.

“I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us,” Christian Walker tweeted. “You’re not a “family man” when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over six times in six months running from your violence.”

Walker responded by saying it was the work of “the left” in an attempt to gain power.
"Well, the damage he's doing is letting people know that the left will do whatever they can to win this seat,” Walker said in an interview with Fox News.

In the AJC poll, 51% of participants indicated they wanted the Republican Party to take control of Congress in the upcoming election, while 46% said they wanted the Democratic Party to retake both chambers.

A total of 1,022 respondents took part in the AJC/UGA poll, which was conducted from October 16 to October 27. The poll reports a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.

Despite the new polling numbers, Warnock’s fundraising chest is significantly larger than Walker’s. According to data from the Federal Election Commission, Warnock has raised more than $123 million, while Walker’s fundraising stands at $37 million.