2022 Midterm Election updates while Democrats, GOP fight to win Senate, House of Representatives

Mainstream journalists and even liberal media figures admitted that Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker did better than expected during his Friday night debate against his Democratic opponent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

NBC News contributors, local news commentators, former Daily Beast writers, and even MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan acknowledged that the Walker’s debate performance was "not as bad as it could have been."

One claimed that Warnock, the Democratic pro-choice pastor, looked weak and should have fought back harder against Walker’s aggressive criticism, and another even declared Walker the victor. 

Fox 5 Atlanta political commentator Phil Kent actually praised Walker, as opposed to giving him begrudging backhanded compliments. He declared Walker the winner, tweeting: "Thought Warnock would be the aggressor but Walker was & had excellent one-liners his opponent had trouble handling."

Read more: Herschel Walker was ‘holding his own’ during debate against Warnock, media admit

Barack Obama (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Former President Barack Obama is traveling to Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin this month to stump for Democratic candidates weeks before the midterm elections.

First, on Oct. 28, he heads to Atlanta, where Stacey Abrams is making another gubernatorial run against incumbent rival Gov. Brian Kemp, and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is facing off against former professional football star Herschel Walker.

Biden has yet to campaign with Abrams or Warnock.

In a release, Georgia Democrats said Obama would encourage residents to cast their ballots during the final week of early in-person voting in the Peach State.

Obama will also join Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Attorney General Josh Kaul, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Gwen Moore and Democrats up and down the ballot in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Democrats said the stakes "couldn't be higher," citing restoring access to reproductive health care and "defending democracy." 

Read more: Obama to jump into midterm campaign with events in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who's seeking re-election to the House in the elections less than four weeks away, lashed out at Rep. Mayra Flores, his Republican challenger, in the race to represent Texas' 34th Congressional District, during a speech earlier this week, claiming that she "can't think for herself, can't speak for herself, can't act for herself, can't vote for herself."

Texas 34th Congressional District candidates Republican Mayra Flores (left) and Democrat Vicente Gonzalez (right). (ALLISON DINNER/AFP, Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Gonzalez's remarks came during a get-out-the-vote rally held at the La Sierra Event Center in Harlingen, Texas, on Wednesday.

"We can't do this alone," Gonzalez told his supporters gathered in the room. "We need everyone's help, we need everyone's friends, everyone's family, and everyone's friends' and families' friends and family. That's the way we're gonna push back on these outside resources coming here picking a candidate, a hand-picked candidate that can't think for herself, can't speak for herself, can't act for herself, can't vote for herself."

"After we lost 19 children and two teachers in a massacre in Uvalde, Texas, her first vote in the United States Congress was a no vote on the Keep Communities Safer Act," he said.

Read more: Dem candidate running in contentious House race says his female opponent can't 'think' or 'speak' for herself

Less than a month until November’s gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Tudor Dixon is urging voters to hold the state’s Democratic governor accountable for rising crime rates.

"It's a problem. People are feeling it in areas they've never felt crime before," said Dixon in an interview with Fox News on Friday. 

Dixon, who has trailed Whitmer in recent polls, believes voters are fed up with spikes in fentanyl overdoses and drug related gun violence. Michigan Republicans have tried to label Whitmer as soft on crime amid recent FBI data showing crime rates rising in cities like Detroit, Saginaw, and Lansing.

I think it's important to look at her record. When she got into office, she started taking money away from the police and away from secondary road patrols," Dixon said. 

Read more: Surging crime, fentanyl crisis at forefront of Michigan governor's race

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, D-Wis., is under scrutiny for his six appearances on RT, formerly known as Russia Today. (Getty Images / AP)

Wisconsin Lt. Governor and Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes denounced the police numerous times while appearing on a Kremlin-funded network as a state lawmaker.

Barnes interviewed on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, on six occasions throughout 2015 and 2016, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.

Barnes is challenging incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in a battleground race that has narrowed in recent weeks as Johnson has honed in on Barnes’ "soft-on-crime policies." Throughout his time within Wisconsin state government, Barnes has signaled support for defunding the police and abolishing ICE.

RT is Russia’s state-funded English-language media network that is considered to be a key asset of the Kremlin’s propaganda arm, according to the U.S. State Department.

Read more from Fox News' Sophia Slacik here: Dem Senate candidate Mandela Barnes repeatedly criticized police on Russian 'propaganda' outlet

Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (Republican National Convention/Handout via REUTERS | Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS)

It’s a high stakes showdown in a high-profile and extremely expensive Senate race that’s among a handful across the country that will determine if Republicans win back the chamber’s majority.

First-term Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Republican challenger Herschel Walker face off Friday night in Savannah in their first and only debate ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

And the debate comes as Walker, a former college and professional football star, is facing the biggest controversy of his campaign for the Senate, as he continues to deny a bombshell report that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion 13 years ago.  Walker — who is a vocal opponent of legalized abortion and supports a proposed 15-week federal ban against the procedure — has repeatedly called the allegations "a flat-out lie."

With the controversy preceding the showdown, the sole debate in the contest is being framed as a "make or break" moment in a race where an average of the latest public opinion polls indicates Warnock with a slight three-point edge over Walker.

For more on tonight's showdown, read the story from Fox News' Paul Steinhauser

Several voters in South Fulton, Georgia, refused to reject Stacey Abrams' claim that the 2018 gubernatorial election was stolen from her, while some outright supported the Democrat's assertion.

"Based off of character, I’m gonna support her on it," one woman, Jasmine, said. "If she said that’s how it happened, if that’s how she really feels, I’m gonna have to support her on that." 

Another voter was more skeptical of the claim.

"The way I see it is: to what degree?" he said. "There's always some type of tampering or something that people use, even if it’s not malicious, it’s just propaganda," he said. 

Abrams, a Democrat, refused to concede the 2018 gubernatorial election to Republican Brian Kemp after losing by 60,000 votes.

In 2019, Abrams said "we won" despite the final tally and Kemp's inauguration, though she has since argued that she accepted the results in 2018.

"She won," South Fulton resident, Kaia, said. "I do feel like it was stolen because she was a Black woman. Not a lot of people want to hear what she has to say."

Read more: Was Stacey Abrams' 2018 election stolen? Voters in Georgia refuse to give up on debunked claim

Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock is arguing that his party should continue its focus on abortion as an election issue despite polls consistently showing voters with significantly more concern for the economy and inflation just weeks ahead of the November midterms.

During a media gaggle following an event celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Fox News Digital asked Warnock if Democrats needed to adjust their message to focus more on what was at the forefront of voters' minds, as well as if he supported any limitations on abortion, a question he dodged.

"Listen, we can, and we must focus on the economy and a woman's right to choose at the same time. Those things are not mutually exclusive," Warnock said. "And that's why you need a serious person in the Senate, because the range of issues that we deal with in any given day are serious. They have far-reaching implications for hard-working families, and this race is about whose ready to do that job," he added.

Fox pressed Warnock on the limitation question, asking again if he supported any restrictions on abortions. Warnock pivoted, and said Herschel Walker, his Republican opponent, supported a blanket abortion ban "with no exceptions."

"I think that the issue that we're dealing with right now is that we have a contrast between somebody who believes in a woman's right to choose, who believes that a patient's room is too small and cramped a space for the woman, her doctor and the United States government, and somebody who wants a nationwide ban with no exceptions," he said. 

Read more: WATCH: Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock dodges question on abortion limitations