Ideology and the letter behind the name. Conservatives vote republican, liberals vote democratic regardless of who the candidates are. Preacher or not, Warnock is seen as forgetting Georgians while Walker is seen as an idiot among a good number of swing voters. I think independents put more stock in who a candidate is than members of either political party. The R and the D is all that matters to them. Hence independents went for Warnock the first time around, viewed as a better person. Partisanship prevails with those of either major party, not so much among independents although you have those indies who lean toward one party or the other.

Warnock problem among Georgians, a good many of them is he ceased listening to them. The term used most is out of touch or forgotten. Walkers problem is that he was Trump chosen. So, neither is well liked. My take on this anyway from what I seen in the polls and a personal point of view. To be well liked by your constituents, you should pay some attention to them. Not shove them off in the closet never to be seen or heard from until election time when you open the door to get their vote. Given a decent Republican candidate, a non-Trumper, he’d have sent Warnock packing. Much like Kemp did to Abrams. Ticket splitting saved Warnock, approximately 200,000 Georgians voted for Kemp, then Warnock.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.