The Midterm Report: Herschel Walker is as dishonest as he is famous
As Democrat Raphael Warnock seeks his first full-term in the U.S. Senate after winning a special election in 2020, his Republican opponent is as dishonest as he is famous.
(Credit: Sean Rayford/Getty Images and Jessica McGowan/Reuters)
July might be the slowest month of primary elections, but between the climate crisis, mass shootings, January 6th hearings, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and voter suppression efforts by Republicans, a multitude of crises are mobilizing Americans to get out to the ballot box this fall.
And while pundits, pollsters, and even yours truly have spent the last six months expecting a Republican victory in the U.S. House, these aforementioned issues could provide some much-needed momentum for a Democratic Party struggling to make meaningful change.
Predicting a House flip in the midterms is a historical sure-fire bet, as these elections often represent a referendum on the White House. Joe Biden’s record low approval ratings aren’t helping.
While Republicans appear to have an advantage in regaining a slim majority in the Senate, the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election has been known to shoot the party in the foot when it comes to garnering victories in battleground states.
Just look at Georgia. After losing both the presidency and the House in 2020, Trump destroyed any chance of his party keeping the Senate after making unfounded claims of election fraud that drove Republican voters away from the southern state’s run-off elections in January.
And looking at the GOP’s contender to beat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, a seat flip is becoming even more of a long shot.
During a speech in September 2019, former running back and current Republican nominee for U.S. Senator Herschel Walker told an audience that he “worked for the law enforcement” and “spent time at Quantico.”
“So I grab my gun. I say, ‘I will kill him,’’' he told the crowd before rambling on about an angel on one shoulder telling him to stop while a devil on the other encouraged him to shoot.
Without mentioning anything else about his so-called career in law enforcement—or even explaining what made him feel compelled to kill someone—he went on to tell the audience what stopped him from taking a life:
“Before I could see the guy, I saw the sign on the back of his truck that said ‘Honk if you Love Jesus’ and that’s what calmed me down.”
The video of Walker falsely claiming that he is, in fact, an FBI agent, began making the rounds on social media on Monday. It was shared by The Republican Accountability Project, a self-described group of conservatives defending pro-democracy Republicans while holding accountable their colleagues who tried to overturn the election and fight against information.
The thing about Walker’s tangential story is that it’s hardly the most bizarre moment that has made headlines throughout his campaign.
The Heisman Trophy winner has been accused by his ex-wife of pointing a gun at her head and saying, “I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.” She would go on to file for divorce in 2001 before getting a protective order against Walker four years later after he allegedly threatened to shoot his ex-wife and her new boyfriend in the head. A court subsequently issued a temporary firearm ban against Walker.
Walker’s campaign recently came under fire for having a reporter escorted out of a Gainesville event in a public park. On the same day, Walker noted that since China is a bigger polluter than the U.S., he believes it’s essentially pointless to take action against the climate crisis.
Warnock, who is also a pastor of the same church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to give sermons, has spent his short time in Congress trying to cap insulin prices at $35 per month and address the skyrocketing cost of living across the country.
Earlier this month, Herschel Walker announced his campaign received a total of $6.2 million in fundraising in the second quarter of the year. It seemed like a good amount for a Senate race... at least for half an hour. Just 30 minutes later, Warnock revealed his campaign’s quarter two total: $17.2 million.
But the Democrat’s financial advantage isn’t enough to secure a victory. Back in 2018, Stacey Abrams outraised her opponent by nearly $20 million but ended up losing in a tight gubernatorial race against the then-Secretary of State, Brian Kemp. Abrams and Kemp are facing off in a rematch this fall, and this time, Kemp doesn’t have the benefit of being the person in charge of overseeing the election process.
Not only has Warnock outraised Walker, their respective campaigns’ cash on hand tells a similar story. Despite spending $20 million during the second quarter, Warnock ended the period with $22 million still in the bank. Walker’s campaign, on the other hand, has less than $7 million.