Months ahead of Georgia’s GOP primaries, the Republican Senate candidates are already failing to be straightforward with the people of Georgia. On Monday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that “U.S. Senate candidate Gary Black failed to file his personal financial disclosure” — more than four months after the filing deadline — while the Democratic Party of Georgia sent a letter to a top Justice Department official requesting a full investigation into the matter. The Black team blamed the lack of transparency on “administrative oversight,” but the three-term Agriculture Commissioner isn’t the only one failing to be open about their finances.
Herschel Walker, Trump’s hand-picked candidate, has two pending FEC investigations hanging over his campaign.
- In August, 11Alive reported that Herschel Walker’s campaign began with a potential violation of federal election law by “spending money as a political candidate before filing required paperwork declaring his candidacy” — while attorney Marc Hershovitz, who has worked in campaign finance for candidates in both parties, noted that Walker was “breaking the law.”
- And in October, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Walker and January 6th insurrection conspirator Marjorie Taylor Greene also may have violated federal election law together. Greene gave “excessive and unreported in-kind contributions” to Walker’s campaign — thousands of dollars beyond the limit allowed by federal law — after OpenSecrets detailed the “deep financial ties” between the two politicians.
“Georgia’s two leading GOP Senate candidates apparently feel that campaign finance and personal financial disclosure rules don’t apply to them,” said Dan Gottlieb, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “If Walker and Black can’t follow basic rules around publicly reporting required information, how can Georgians trust them in the Senate?”
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