Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Senate hopeful Herschel Walker presented a united front on Thursday, pledging to vote for one another and back their fellow Republican’s campaign as they head into the final stretch before Election Day.
Both candidates are locked in tight, high-stakes races against their Democratic opponents, Stacey Abrams and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.
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Kemp has dodged direct questions about Walker for weeks as a string of controversies piled up around the Heisman Trophy winner, including allegations he paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion, which he strongly denies, and accusations he lied about law enforcement ties and his education credentials.
Instead of answering any direct questions about Walker’s headline-grabbing news, Kemp has said he supports the entire Republican ticket, which by default includes Walker. Walker, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said in an audio recording in February that he didn’t support Kemp or his Trump-endorsed challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, in the primaries.
“I don’t support either one of them,” Walker said at an event with college students at the University of North Georgia. “I’m mad at both of them.”
That sentiment seems to have changed.
Walker’s camp told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that talk of bad blood between the candidates was a “distraction” and reiterated that Walker and Kemp have known each other for years and are close.
“Democrats like Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams have failed this country, given us sky-high inflation and empty grocery stores,” Will Kiley, Walker’s communications director, told the Washington Examiner. “Anything else is a distraction. Herschel has a great relationship with the governor. The whole ticket is united and going to win. Go Dawgs.”
Kemp’s campaign manager also touted the tight bond between the candidates.
“The governor supports and intends to vote for Herschel Walker and the entire Republican ticket,” Tate Mitchell, Kemp’s spokesman, told the Washington Examiner. “Our campaign remains laser-focused on building the resources and the ground game necessary to deliver Republican wins up and down the ballot and bring hardworking Georgians relief from the disastrous Biden agenda that Stacey Abrams supports and Raphael Warnock has voted for 96% of the time.”
Unlike Kemp, Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan had some harsh words for Walker, saying his recent scandals have “upended the political landscape, throwing one of the nation’s closest midterm races into turmoil.” Duncan added in a scathing editorial that “the Republican Party should not have found its chance of regaining a Senate majority hanging on an untested and unproven first-time candidate” but said so far, Walker “had a Trump-esque Teflon quality of surviving scandals that would sink mere mortals.”
Despite the controversies, several polls conducted after the abortion bombshell show Walker has mostly maintained his support and that he and Warnock remain statistically tied.
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Unlike the Republicans, who have campaigned separately, Warnock and Abrams have campaigned on each other’s behalf and attended door knockers and other canvassing drives together.
