Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized Herschel Walker's campaign after the Republican lost his Georgia Senate runoff election to Raphael Warnock following a string of scandals.
The incumbent Democrat senator won Tuesday's race with 51.4 percent of the vote, with the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate Walker receiving 48.6 percent.
The result means that the Democrats now have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, giving the party greater power in the upper chamber for the next two years of President Joe Biden's administration.
The loss also means yet another midterm candidate backed by Trump has failed in their election bid. Many within the GOP blame the former president for the party failing to take control of the Senate and only just passing the 218 seats needed for a House majority, rather than the expected "red wave."
In a tweet following Walker's loss, fellow Georgia Republican rep. Greene thanked those in the state who "turned out to vote to try to get our US Senate seat back," while pointing the finger of blame for the former NFL star's defeat.
"This loss is not a reflection of our voters, but more a reflection of campaign strategies, messaging, and missteps that didn't produce victory for Georgia," Greene tweeted.
Walker's defeat followed a seemingly nonstop string of scandals that always threatened to derail his campaign, on top of constant erratic public statements he made.
Walker was accused by two of his former girlfriends of paying for their abortions, despite the Republican later supporting a national ban on the procedure.
Walker denied the allegations, and previously claimed he never met one of the women. It was later reported that a woman who accused Walker of paying for her abortion later gave birth to one of Walker's four children, three of whom he never publicly acknowledged until his Senate campaign.
The Republican was also found to have made a number of false statements regarding his education and employment history, including wrongly claiming he previously worked as an FBI agent and in other law-enforcement departments.
During the live televised debate with Warnock on October 14, Walker pulled out an honorary law-enforcement badge to prove his credentials as a law-enforcement officer.
The badge was awarded to Walker in recognition of community service work with the Cobb County Sheriff's Department, with the Republican also receiving an honorary badge from the sheriff's department in Johnson County. Neither badge gives Walker any law-enforcement authority, nor the power to arrest.
In his concession speech in Atlanta, Georgia, Walker told his supporters they had been on a "tough journey," while thanking his family and his campaign team as "they put up with a lot."
"There's no excuses in life, and I'm not going to make any excuses now, because we put out one heck of a fight," Walker said.
"I've done a lot of stuff. You talked about the Heisman Trophy, all the athletic awards, business awards I won, but the best thing I've done in my whole entire life is run for the Senate seat right here."
In his victory speech, Warnock, who was elected to Senate after winning runoff election against Kelly Loeffler in January 2021, told the crowd that after a "long and hard-fought" campaign, it is now his honor to "utter the four most powerful words in a democracy, 'the people have spoken.'"
Warnock added: "I have often said that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children. It is faith put in action. It is the sober recognition that we pray not only with our lips but with our legs.
"And Georgia, you have been doing just that: praying with your lips and with your legs, with your hands and your feet, with your head and your heart! And here we are standing together."
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Correction 12/7/22, 4:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated to clarify that Raphael Warnock is the incumbent Democratic senator, not governor.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
