Republican Herschel Walker issued a blasé statement in announcing his highly anticipated campaign for Senate in Georgia, with the protege of former President Donald Trump vowing to defend conservative values and the American dream.
The former professional football player unveiled a campaign website Wednesday that was laden with athletic imagery and slogans and highlighted his connection to Trump — but that was light on any political or policy agenda. What is Walker’s position on Afghanistan; the bipartisan infrastructure package passed by the Senate earlier this month? Does he support Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for reelection; back local school districts prerogative to implement mask mandates? Nobody knows.
“In the United States Senate, I will stand up for conservative values and get our country moving in the right direction. It is time to have leaders in Washington who will fight to protect the American Dream for everybody,” Walker said in a prepared statement.
If Walker becomes the Republican Party’s Senate nominee, he will likely share the top of the ticket with Kemp, creating an awkward and distracting political situation. Trump, Walker’s political benefactor, blames Kemp for his loss in Georgia in 2020 and is vowing to oppose him in next May’s gubernatorial primary. Walker could face constant questions about his position on Kemp’s reelection, caught between Trump and Republicans in Georgia.
“Hershel will be asked daily about Kemp. Most likely he’ll trash Kemp like he’s done on Twitter, and then reporters will ask Kemp to respond. That’s going to get old, fast,” a Republican operative in Georgia said.
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Walker, who has lived the last several years in Texas, has been mum about his positions or political plans in the months since Trump encouraged him to challenge Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022. Walker finally announced this week, to the relief of many Republican insiders who worried Walker, a college football star at the University of Georgia in the early 1980s, was freezing the field and delaying the GOP effort to undermine Warnock’s reelection bid.
Warnock won a special election in January, ousting appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and is now filling the remaining two years of the term Republican Johnny Isakson won in 2016 (Isakson resigned in 2019 for health reasons.) Warnock is likable and charismatic, and although the midterm elections are shaping up as problematic for Democrats, some top Republicans in Georgia and Washington worry that Walker, a first-time candidate, could be tripped up by controversy in his past.
Walker has openly discussed his previous bouts with mental illness and how it affected his family life, but it has never been litigated politically. Walker has been a celebrity figure for years, but Republicans worry he is not prepared to handle this unique kind of scrutiny. Plus, they fear Democrats will use the information to undermine his candidacy. Those fears have led some top Republicans in Washington to air their concerns about Walker publicly.
“I want to win that race,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a close confidant of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, told Politico in late July. “To the extent that he’s handicapped by some of these things that would make that unlikely, I’d prefer to have somebody else.” McConnell prefers an alternative to Walker, who joins a Republican primary that includes Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.
“The guy still hasn’t answered questions about holding a gun to his wife’s head — or why he didn’t vote for Trump in 2016,” a veteran GOP Senate strategist said. Added a second Republican operative skeptical of Walker: “He’s an oppo researcher’s dream.”
Some Republicans are open to Walker’s Senate bid, seeing the upside.
He is a successful businessman and a folk hero in the state as a native Georgian who led the University of Georgia football team to a national championship and went on to fame and fortune. That could be a potent combination against Warnock, who has consistently supported President Joe Biden’s agenda. At the very least, some Republicans say, Walker entering the race now gives the party plenty of time to pivot should he flail.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which does not intervene in primary contests, welcomed Walker to the campaign trail with a complimentary statement.
“Herschel Walker is a great American and a great Republican,” NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline said. “He’s joining a strong group of Republicans in the primary and will be a formidable candidate. Georgia Republicans will have a spirited primary. We’re confident that whoever wins the primary will be well-positioned to beat” Warnock.
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Walker already has Trump’s endorsement, which could prove decisive in the primary. Meanwhile, he also picked up the backing of Rep. Buddy Carter, who in a statement called the new Senate candidate “a fighter who will take on Raphael Warnock, the radical Left, Big Tech, woke corporations and their socialist agenda.”
The Walker campaign declined to comment for this story.
