Running back Herschel Walker wowed football crowds with dazzling gridiron offensive moves for the University of Georgia and then during a lengthy NFL career. Now, as he is within striking distance of winning Georgia’s Senate election, he is being forced to play defense in the campaign’s final weeks.
Instead of hitting Democrats on soaring inflation and crime, Walker has had to address allegations from two women claiming he pressured and paid for them to end their pregnancies despite running on a strict anti-abortion platform. Walker has strongly denied the allegations, but they have forced him to veer from the talking points Republicans are driving home across the country. He’s also had to defend a number of other controversies surrounding claims of domestic abuse and infidelity.
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On Wednesday, a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” claimed she had a decadelong relationship with Walker that began in the 1980s while he was with the Dallas Cowboys and ended in the 1990s when he played for the Philadelphia Eagles. She claims she got pregnant in 1993 and that the football star pressured her to get an abortion. When she couldn’t go through with it, he allegedly got upset, drove her to a Dallas clinic himself the following day, and waited “for hours” in the parking lot while the procedure was performed. The newest allegations come on the heels of a Daily Beast report earlier this month in which another woman came forward with claims Walker paid for her to get an abortion.
In the past, such allegations have dashed newcomers’ political dreams, but Walker may very well buck the trend.
While his polling numbers took an initial hit, a RealClearPolitics polling average shows that the Heisman Trophy winner has regained all of the ground he lost after the first abortion allegation, bringing his race with incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock to a statistical dead heat with two weeks to go before the midterm election. At stake is control of the U.S. Senate.
“One would think that these scandals would tank Herschel Walker’s candidacy with many pro-life voters, but this is a very different GOP than in the past,” David McLaughlin, Democratic strategist and host of the Kudzu Vine podcast, told the Washington Examiner. “I think Herschel Walker could open up Uber Abortions and he would lose very little support.”
Walker was pressed by Fox News host Bret Baier Wednesday night to address the latest allegations despite Walker desperately trying to pivot to other issues, such as President Joe Biden’s policies.
Baier asked Walker: “You’re saying you don’t know this person?”
WATCH: FOX NEWS HOST GRILLS HERSCHEL WALKER AFTER NEW ABORTION ALLEGATIONS MADE
Walker responded, “What I’m saying is this is a lie, and I’ve said it once, and I’ve moved on in my campaign and moved on because we’re worried about what the Georgia people are talking about. They’re talking about inflation. They’re talking about crime. They’re talking about men in women’s sports. They’re talking about the border.”
Walker chalked up the most recent abortion allegation to a desperate ploy by Democrats to discredit him.
“I’ve said this is a lie, I’ve moved on, and they want me to play these guessing games and all this,” he said. “But I’m not, I’m not into that. I’m into winning this great seat back for the great people of Georgia because that’s what this is about.”
Baier told Walker he had spoken to a number of voters who were affected by the abortion claims and said that “they just weren’t sure and they didn’t know if another shoe was going to drop.”
Walker said he’d tell voters on the fence about him to refocus their thoughts on Biden and Warnock and the state of the economy.
“So right now, [Democrats] would do whatever they can and say whatever they can to win power back for this seat,” Walker said before launching back to his talking points.
The tone was a little friendlier when Walker, seated next to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), appeared on Sean Hannity’s show.
“I was watching Special Report earlier, and I noticed that another woman has come forward and made an allegation, and not one bit of evidence was presented that you were involved in any way in an abortion,” Hannity said. “The only evidence presented is you might have dated some girl that Gloria Allred is representing, and you deny it completely.”
Like Graham, other notable Republicans are standing by Walker, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who told the Washington Examiner that he still supported Walker and intended to vote for him on Nov. 8.
Georgia voter Bob Best told the Washington Examiner in an email that Walker’s latest troubles have not moved the needle for him.
“Suburban Atlanta women [are] who this is directed at, and the intelligent ones won’t be impacted at all,” he said. “Some independent women might be moved a bit if they are into the whole abortion/misogyny thing. My wife is certainly not swayed.”
Best said the allegations of abortion would be more convincing if the women in question would identify themselves.
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Augusta resident Nancy Calhoun called the latest abortion controversy “filler.”
“They are trying to throw him off his game,” she told the Washington Examiner. “He has to waste his time talking about this crap.”
