Atlanta, United States (AFP) — The US Senate contest in Georgia that could determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress is headed for a December run-off, media projections showed on Wednesday.

Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, a black pastor at a historic church, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a former American football star backed by Donald Trump, will battle for the seat on December 6, CNN and NBC projected.

Neither candidate has earned the simple majority of votes needed by law to win outright.

The 53-year-old Warnock is seeking a full term after winning the seat in a run-off in January 2021 — a one-two punch with fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff that helped secure the party’s control of the Senate for the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

Warnock is the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr once preached.

Walker, 60, benefitted from name recognition and Trump’s endorsement.

But his campaign has been beset by allegations of past domestic abuse, an exaggerated resume, fathering children outside of his marriage and paying for the termination of pregnancies of two previous girlfriends.

The race is crucial to the future control of Congress, which remained in the balance Wednesday as several key races were yet to be decided.