Georgia sports hero Herschel Walker may have been a winner on the football field, but when it comes to politics, the running back bit the dust.
Walker was hand-picked by former President Donald Trump to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock in a race that Republicans could have, and some say should have, won.
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Political analysts have blamed poor candidate quality, while others have pointed to a litany of problems, including inexperience, a messy personal life, lackluster voter turnout, and missteps his handlers made on the campaign trail as reasons for Walker’s Tuesday night loss.
Georgia political strategist David McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner that the results of the runoff should be a wake-up call for both parties.
“I think both parties have questions coming out of last night,” McLaughlin, host of the Kudzu Vine podcast, said. “For Democrats: Why did it take this much money and effort to defeat such a deeply flawed and unqualified candidate, and what if Republicans actually start handling the nomination process like a job interview instead of a casting call for the next season of the Surreal Life? For Republicans: Why are the majority of our voters so attracted to these shock value personalities who cannot connect with voters outside of the MAGA base?”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) predicted a political doomsday scenario back in April if his party wasn’t careful.
“How could [Republicans] screw this up? It’s actually possible,” he said before airing concerns about candidate quality that applied to political newcomers in multiple races this year.
In Georgia, Walker had no prior experience, bragged about not being smart, and had an extremely tangled private life that made him a problematic candidate from the start.
Walker’s own staffers told the Daily Beast he was a “pathological liar” who had been untruthful about his ties to law enforcement, education, and family members, an accusation Walker’s campaign manager dismissed as “pure gossip.” The former athlete also faced domestic abuse allegations and made eyebrow-raising comments questioning evolution, pronouns, and the now-infamous werewolf vs. vampire argument.
But even as the scandals piled up, Walker was able to leverage his football hero status and remain somewhat viable to Republicans. But a Heisman Trophy can only get you so far — even in Georgia.
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In the general election, Gov. Brian Kemp, arguably the most popular Republican in the state, defeated Democratic foe Stacey Abrams by more than 7 percentage points, while Walker trailed Warnock as some Republican voters split their ticket. In all, Republicans won eight of nine statewide races. In the Senate race, the GOP was outspent 3-to-1.
Neither Walker nor Warnock had enough votes in the general election for an outright win, forcing them into a runoff.
Winning a runoff usually comes down to which candidate pulls in the most votes, and this year, more than 1.85 million early voting ballots were cast in Georgia, breaking state records.
“We are seeing record voter turnout all across the state,” Warnock said during a weekend event. “People are showing up to vote.”
That was good news for Warnock but not Walker.
Turnout on Tuesday was lower than in the November general election by about 400,000 voters.
That turnout drop, especially in Atlanta’s exurban counties in North Georgia, hurt Walker. Forsyth County provided 66,000 votes in Walker’s November outing but only 58,000 in December, according to a Washington Post analysis. In Cherokee County, Walker dropped from 81,000 to 72,000.
In the end, Warnock more than doubled his lead over Walker. The senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church was up by about 95,000 votes Wednesday, beating his 37,000-vote lead in the general election.
While hoping for a win, it didn’t come as a huge surprise Tuesday night when Warnock edged out Walker, with 51.4% of the vote to Walker’s 48.6%, to keep his seat — the outcome largely tracked with the polls.
The conversation quickly turned into a blame game.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham faulted GOP Senate leadership and the Republican National Committee for the loss.
“We felt this coming,” she said on her show. “To me, it never felt like the Senate Republicans wanted this guy in office. He was a Trump pick.”
She added the GOP lacked the “intensity” the Democrats had heading into the final weeks of the race.
“We have the same people in place in leadership,” she said. “The same people in place, apparently at the RNC, perhaps that’s not changing. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I’m pissed tonight, frankly. I’m mad.”
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel defended her party’s record in Georgia during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News, noting the success Republicans had in every other statewide race.
RNC spokesman Nathan Brand made much the same argument, adding in a statement to the Washington Examiner that “because of RNC GOTV efforts, more Republicans voted in Georgia than any midterm election in state history.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) blamed Trump, calling him an “albatross and a real liability” to the GOP. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton echoed the sentiments, claiming the loss was “due primarily to Trump.”
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) pushed back on the finger-pointing at Trump, calling it “the dumbest assessment of our Senate loss.”
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Instead, she blamed the loss on Walker’s campaign staff.
“His campaign told Trump to stay out of it, so don’t blame Trump,” she said in a tweet. “Blame the one who was hand-holding him all over the state, among many other reasons.”
