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A sports legend, the 60-year-old Walker secured the Republican
nomination to run for the Senate for the state in May, seeing
off five contenders. Republicans hoped his popularity and name
recognition would translate into victory in what is likely to be
a close race.
But he has been trailing Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in
most opinion polls, his campaign rocked by repeated policy
gaffes and a string of controversies about his past, including
allegations of domestic violence.
Walker is one of a handful of Trump-endorsed first-time
Republican Senate candidates, also including TV personality
Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and author J.D. Vance in Ohio, who
even senior Republicans say are weighing on the party's changes
of recapturing Senate control.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, without naming
individuals, has cited "candidate quality" as a reason why
Republicans may struggle to capture the Senate, putting his
party's odds of winning a Senate majority at 50-50.
Analysts say Walker has made himself an easy target for
political attacks, with disjointed comments on issues from
COVID-19 to climate. For instance, he attacked the
recently-passed $430 billion climate and drug bill on Sunday,
saying a lot of the money is "going to trees" and asking,
according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Don't we have
enough trees around here?"
"Every time he opens his mouth about a policy issue, it sounds
like a word salad. It's very convoluted and doesn't make sense
sometimes," said Trey Hood, a political science professor at the
University of Georgia.
The Republican Accountability political action committee, run by
anti-Trump Republicans, has tried to put domestic violence
allegations front and center in the campaign. It released a
30-second ad in which Walker's ex-wife Cindy DeAngelis Grossman
says "he held the gun to my temple and said he was going to blow
my brains out."
Walker responded with his own video, saying Grossman's comments
were taken out of context but that he was "glad they did this
ad, because it gives me an opportunity to end the stigma around
mental health."
The Walker campaign and local Republican Party leaders say the
former sports star has been the target of unfair news coverage,
insisting that his interactions with voters at campaign events
have been overwhelmingly successful.
"The whole situation is quite aggravating to me, because
Herschel Walker is an extremely intelligent man who has a full
grasp of the issues," said Salleigh Grubbs, who chairs the
Republican Party in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta.
With the 100-seat Senate currently split 50-50, Republicans need
only a net one-seat gain to take the majority.
Georgia was Republican territory until Biden won the state by a
thin margin in 2020, and Warnock and fellow Democratic Senator
Jon Ossoff unseated two Republican incumbents in a 2021 run-off.
Opinion polls suggest the gap between Walker and Warnock is very
narrow, and some have had Walker ahead. But he is considerably
less popular in surveys than other Georgia Republicans,
including Governor Brian Kemp, who is up for re-election this
year. That, analysts said, suggests that some Republican voters
who cast ballots for Kemp could just opt not to vote for a
Senate candidate -- or to back Warnock instead.
Warnock was well known in the state, too, before he was elected
to the Senate, as senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King once
preached. Strategists say that could appeal to Georgia's large
Christian electorate.
Warnock has also used recent Democratic legislative victories to
fortify his appeal to voters.
"Reverend Warnock is focused on fighting for hardworking Georgia
families, leading the effort to successfully cap the cost of
prescription drugs for seniors, protect Georgia jobs and hold
corporations accountable for price gouging," Warnock campaign
communications director Meredith Brasher said in a statement.
Democratic strategists expect Warnock to emphasize his policy
message to try to overcome Walker's name recognition as a former
NFL player who led the University of Georgia to its first
national football title in 1980.
Both Walker and Warnock are Black. And Atlanta-based Democratic
strategist Fred Hicks said Warnock could improve his ground game
against Walker by driving up turnout among Black male voters
with concrete appeals on policy issues including jobs and
healthcare.
But Republicans argue that the close poll numbers bode well for
Walker, given the controversies and political attacks he has
weathered.
"Beating an incumbent senator is never easy. But Herschel is a
good candidate and is he going to win," said Walker campaign
communications director Will Kiley.
The Georgia Senate race is already expected to be the nation's
most expensive, according to research firm AdImpact, which
forecasts $276 million in ad spending. Spending could intensify
even further if the Nov. 8 election proves inconclusive and a
Georgia run-off becomes the deciding factor for Senate control.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba
O'Brien)
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