#GASEN Year in Review: Herschel Walker and the Messy GOP Race for #GASEN

While Herschel Walker contends with a GOP “political civil war” looming over his campaign, Republicans continue to take aim at the Trump-tapped candidate for all his missteps in Georgia’s messy GOP Senate primary. From being called out for making false claims about his business record and personal background to defending the swastika as a symbol of the anti-vaccine movement, Walker is rounding out a rocky 2021 in Georgia’s Senate race. Meanwhile, Walker and the entire GOP Senate field have come out in opposition to creating jobs and boosting the economy with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in opposition to protecting the fundamental right to vote with federal voting rights legislation, and in favor of banning abortions — even in cases of rape or incest.

Catch the 2021 highlights from Walker’s messy campaign for #GASEN below: 

JULY

• Walker’s checkered past and sketchy business dealings are put on display. Before even entering the race, the Associated Press shined a light on Walker’s threatening behavior toward women and inflation of his personal business record, with associates calling him a “temperamental and unreliable business partner.”
   
• Mitch McConnell and the Washington GOP establishment desperately tried to keep him out of the race with orchestrated negative stories. One month before Walker announced, Senate GOP leadership weighed in on a story asserting they’d “prefer to have somebody else” in the Senate race rather than Walker.
  

AUGUST

• “What [Walker’s] doing is, he’s breaking the law.” Within days of entering the race on August 24, 11Alive reported that Walker’s campaign had already potentially “violated the law by spending money as a political candidate before officially declaring his candidacy,” and a formal complaint was filed with the FEC requesting a swift investigation into his violations in the leadup to his Senate entrance. 
   
• “Walker is a serial promoter of false 2020 conspiracy theories.” As CNN reported in August, Walker used his platform to spread false conspiracy theories and throw lighter fluid on the disinformation that inspired the deadly event — even calling for Trump and his allies to conduct a “total cleansing” two days before the January 6 insurrection:
   
  • In a tweet on January 4, two days before Congress met to count the 2020 electoral votes, Walker falsely alleged that there was “Country wide election fraud.“
     
  • Walker called for Trump and “TRUE PATRIOTS” to conduct a “total cleansing” two days before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
     
  • Walker falsely suggested that [the rioters] weren’t actually Trump supporters — calling them “Trojan horses” and saying “they do not look like MAGA.”
     
  • As the insurrection turned deadly, Walker claimed that “you have the power…to get to the bottom of who stole this election!”
     

SEPTEMBER

• Walker’s very first campaign event in Georgia was a private fundraiser with high-dollar donors — not everyday Georgians.  In September, Walker made his first appearance as a candidate in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race — not with a crowd of Republican voters at a major GOP event open to the public, but instead with a handful of high-dollar conservative donors at a closed-door fundraiser — infuriating local Republican activists. 
   
• Republicans fret about Walker’s tightly controlled, closed-door campaign rollout. As Walker opted for closed-door mega-fundraisers and Fox News spots over talking directly to voters, the Georgia GOP has become increasingly frustrated with his campaign. Republicans including 2020 Senate candidate Doug Collins, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, and fellow Senate candidates Latham Saddler and Gary Black have since criticized Walker for having “not outlined a clear rationale” for running.
   
• Walker brags that Trump will be his campaign’s ‘couch quarterback’ while Trump brags that Walker is running “at my behest.” On Fox & Friends, Walker told the hosts that Trump would serve his campaign as the “quarterback sitting on a couch, watching me play,” and admitted that he had no hesitation to run for Senate because “I trust Donald, I trust the President, I trust him so much.” Meanwhile, the former president took credit for Walker’s candidacy in September, noting “[Walker] did this at my behest” — reaffirming that his campaign has less to do with fighting for Georgians and more to do with pleasing Donald Trump.
  

OCTOBER

• Walker defends the use of a swastika as an ‘anti-mandatory vaccination graphic,’ refuses to condemn anti-vaccine efforts. In October, Walker defended a donor’s use of a swastika ahead of a high-dollar fundraiser that same donor was scheduled to host for him. Walker, who has also refused to say whether he is vaccinated, dismissed the Nazi image — a swastika made out of syringes — as “clearly an anti-mandatory vaccination graphic,” before massive public outrage forced him to backpedal. Even after the barrage of criticism, Walker refused to condemn the anti-vaccination efforts that led his campaign to condone the hateful symbol in the first place and refused to say whether he’ll return any donations he received ahead of the canceled event. “Our Jewish trauma is not your symbol, Herschel Walker,” said Georgia Rabbi Joshua Lesser at a rally against the Trump-tapped candidate.“Our deaths are not for your exploitation. His behavior is reprehensible and certainly does not warrant any credibility and being able to serve effectively the citizens of Georgia.”
   
• “You can’t hide forever.” Georgia Republicans publicly “worried” and “terrified” about Walker’s “curated closed-door campaign.” Herschel Walker’s “closed-door” and “curated” campaign continues to disappoint Georgians, while GOP strategists fear that Walker is “not ready to answer difficult questions,” and “too closely aligned with his friend, former President Trump.”
   
  • Conservative commentator Todd Starnes compared Herschel Walker to failed Senate candidate Kelly Loeffler, noting that it “bothers me” he is “not out there” campaigning and was “not out there talking about the issues like Gary [Black] is.”
     
  • “How long can Herschel continue to operate without doing many public events or answering questions?” said Eric Tanenblatt, a veteran Georgia GOP strategist.
     
  • “You can’t hide forever,” said another Georgia Republican strategist.
     
  • “Everybody I talk to in the Republican universe who isn’t being paid by [Walker] is terrified,” said yet another GOP strategist in Georgia, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations. 
     
  • “The work in Washington is too important, and the stakes for voters are too high, not to say exactly where you stand on issues you know you’ll be voting on in the future,” said AJC’s Patricia Murphy. “It’s the very least we should be able to ask from a person who wants to lead the state into the future.”
     
• Walker and Marjorie Taylor Greene may have violated federal election laws together. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in October, Trump’s hand-picked candidate Walker and January 6th insurrection conspirator Marjorie Taylor Greene may have violated federal election laws together. Greene appears to have given “excessive and unreported in-kind contributions” to Walker’s campaign — thousands of dollars beyond the limit allowed by federal law. Separately, OpenSecrets reports that Walker’s campaign “has deep financial ties to…controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene,” sharing multiple agents who play key roles in their campaigns’ financial operations. Minutes after giving a speech about unity at Trump’s Perry rally in September, Walker also posed for a photo with Marjorie Taylor Greene while holding an “IMPEACH BIDEN” sign, which Greene then spent thousands of dollars promoting.
   
• Despite Trump’s endorsement, Gary Black builds groundswell of GOP endorsements in Georgia — including 55 legislative Republicans, dozens of sheriffs, and a handful of high-profile Georgia GOP figures — underscoring worries about Walker. As Capitol Beat reported, Black’s campaign is “attracting support from a significant number of Republicans…despite former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Herschel Walker.” That’s in addition to Black’s endorsements from former Gov. Nathan Deal and ex-U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, an ardent Trump supporter who has been very critical of Walker’s campaign.
  

NOVEMBER

• Black goes “scorched earth” on Walker, calling the candidate’s history of domestic violence “disqualifying” and stating that “Georgians won’t tolerate an abuser of women.” Black, who has nabbed endorsements from key Georgia Republican leaders, took direct aim at Walker’s “disqualifying” history in his “most scathing attacks yet,” while dismissing the decision by McConnell and other Republican U.S. senators to endorse Walker as a “tremendous miscalculation.”
   
• Walker dodges a GOP debate forum. Three of the four top GOP U.S. Senate candidates participated in a debate hosted by WSB’s Shelley Wynter. But as the AJC notes, Walker was a “no-show.”
   
• Walker and the entire GOP Senate field opposed the bipartisan infrastructure deal for Georgia. Every single GOP Senate candidate, including Walker, opposed the bipartisan plan to create good-paying Georgia jobs, help American companies compete against China, and rebuild our roads, bridges, and public transportation. 
  

DECEMBER 

• Walker refuses to endorse Kemp and stokes GOP infighting as Trump plays up Perdue and Walker as an “unstoppable team.” When asked by a Fox News host about David Perdue entering the race and promising he “would not have certified Georgia’s 2020 election results,” Walker refused to endorse the incumbent governor — instead stoking the GOP brawl and speculating that “this governor’s race is going to heat up” as his biggest benefactor, Donald Trump, sends the Georgia GOP into a panic. As Trump directly links Perdue and Walker together as an “unstoppable team,” Perdue claims the “reality that Herschel faces” is that Kemp will hurt his Senate bid. And as a GPB News reporter notes, it will be “hard for Herschel Walker to sit on the sidelines (or be seen as sitting on the sidelines) in the gov race when Trump says stuff like this.”
   
• Walker gets caught making false claims — again: Herschel Walker was making more “false claims” — this time, about his educational background. It’s the latest in a pattern of dishonesty from Walker, who repeatedly “exaggerated claims of financial success.”
   
• Herschel Walker and all of the GOP Senate candidates want to ban abortions — even “in instances of rape and incest.” Days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s heard oral arguments on Mississippi’s abortion ban, an unconstitutional law that restricts women’s reproductive freedom, Walker made it clear that he will “vote for any legislation” that bans abortions — “including in instances of rape and incest.”
   
• Four months in, Georgia conservatives and GOP candidates are still expressing frustration with Walker’s “closed-door” campaign.
   
  • Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan: Walker has no vision, not talking to voters. Duncan penned an op-ed asserting that Walker “has yet to articulate a political vision or make the case to voters why he is best-suited to be their senator,” while noting that much like Perdue, Walker has “not outlined a clear rationale or reason to run” for Georgians. 
     
  • Phil Kent, a Georgia GOP commentator, issued a “warning” to the Trump-tapped candidate. “Herschel Walker is going to have to get out there and take questions from the media,” Kent cautioned the candidate he’s supporting.
     
  • Conservative commentator John Fredericks: Walker will lose if this is their strategy. Fredericks, who attended Walker’s Mar-a-Lago fundraiser with Donald Trump, is among many “disappointed” conservatives sounding the alarm about Walker’s lackluster, “very controlled” campaign. “I’m telling everybody that if that is their strategy, to just insulate the candidate from the public, they are going to lose this race.” 
     
• Walker confirmed he does not support protecting the fundamental right to vote and disrespected the legacy of the late Congressman John Lewis. Walker doubled down on his opposition to ensuring all eligible Georgia voters have access to the ballot box while claiming that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after the Georgia congressman and civil rights leader, “doesn’t fit what John Lewis stood for.”
   
• Walker still refuses to say if he’s vaccinated — as Omicron rages and Trump admits to being vaccinated and boosted. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is reporting that Walker is still refusing to disclose whether or not he’s received the COVID-19 vaccine, even as the Omicron variant rages across Georgia and former President Donald Trump admits that he’s been vaccinated and boosted. For months, Walker has refused to encourage Georgians to get vaccinated despite efforts from officials in Georgia and nationally to raise vaccination rates.

“Four months into his Senate campaign, Walker has only managed to get Georgians’ attention by avoiding their questions, lying about his accomplishments, and standing on the wrong side of every issue Georgians care about,” said Dan Gottlieb, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “While Walker’s campaign continues to create headaches for Republicans, Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock and Georgia Democrats continue to focus on what matters most: rebuilding our infrastructure, expanding access to health care, and delivering relief for hardworking Georgians in every corner of the state.”

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