WHAT GEORGIANS ARE SEEING: CNN Report Reveals Herschel Walker Taking Tax Break Meant for Texas Residents

Today, a new report from CNN revealed that Herschel Walker is receiving a tax exemption meant for a “principal residence” on his Texas home — while he’s also an active candidate running for office in Georgia. 

Walker is “potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office.”

Georgians are reading about it in the Atlanta Daily World, Gwinnett Daily Post, Jackson Progress-Argus, Henry Harold, Rockdale & Newton Citizen, and Albany Herald.

See what others are saying about Walker’s latest “Texas-sized” problem below:

CNN Inside Politics With John King

CNN Anchor John King: “In what you might call a Texas-sized question for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, CNN’s K-File reports Walker is getting a $1500 tax break because he listed a Texas home as his primary residence this year. A local Texas official tells the KFile Walker took the tax break for both 2021 and 2022 that being after launching his senate bid in Georgia.”

“This is not hard. Basic campaign 101: check the tax forms, check your housing forms, check everything else. He is taking a tax deduction on a primary residence in Texas while running for the senate in Georgia. Bad.”

Washington Post Toulouse Olorunnipa: “This is not the kind of headline you want to try to motivate voters in Georgia to say that you should represent them. There are already a number of Georgians that say he should not be our representative. The fact that he’s claiming a tax break in Texas doesn’t help.”

CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera

CNN Anchor: “Walker claimed a tax exemption on his house in Texas that’s only intended for primary residences. Walker apparently did this in both 2021 and 2022 after he announced his Senate run. What’s his campaign saying about this?”

CNN Eva McKend: “So the campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment. […] It’s a bit surprising he would sort of get ensnared in this when political candidates’ finances are so heavily scrutinized. But it appears Walker potentially ran afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules.”

CNN Eva McKend: “I was speaking to a man at a Walker rally who indicated to me that he was likely going to be a split ticket voter voting for Governor Kemp and Senator Warnock and he said that he was surprised that his fellow conservatives weren’t holding it against Walker that he had so recently lived in Texas. You know, he only registered to vote in the state of Georgia last year when he mounted this Senate run.”

The New York Times: Herschel Walker, Running in Georgia, Receives Tax Break for Texas Residents

• Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, is receiving a tax exemption on his Texas home that is meant for primary residents of the state, despite currently living and running for office in Georgia.

• This is not the first time Mr. Walker has faced questions about his residency. Before announcing his Senate campaign in 2021, Mr. Walker lived in Texas for more than two decades. He registered to vote in Georgia in August 2021, days before he declared his candidacy.

Texas Tribune: Herschel Walker, running for U.S. Senate in Georgia, still gets tax break on $3 million Texas residence

• Walker’s Texas homestead exemption might also raise questions about his Senate run in Georgia. He is in a runoff with U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, in a race to determine just how tightly Democrats will control the Senate for the next two years. The U.S. Constitution requires officeholders to live in the state in which they’re elected.

• Under Texas law, homeowners can claim a homestead exemption — which exempts a certain amount of a home’s value from taxation — only on their primary residence. But homeowners may continue to claim the exemption if they “do not establish a principal residence elsewhere … intend to return to the home … [and] are away less than two years,” according to the state comptroller’s office.

Vanity Fair: Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Claimed Tax Benefits For People Who Live In Texas

• Herschel Walker can add claiming a Texas primary residence tax benefit, while running for Senate in Georgia, to the long list of eyebrow-raising reports he will likely need to explain in the final weeks of his campaign.

Insider: Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker set to receive 2022 tax exemption on Texas home meant for a ‘principal residence’

• In 2021, Walker registered to vote in Georgia after living in Texas for about 20 years.

• Texas homeowner guidelines stipulate that individuals can qualify for the exemption if it’s used for their “principal residence.”

• “Walker’s pattern of dishonesty, fraudulent schemes and disturbing conduct grows longer every day. Walker owes voters an explanation for this scandal – and it’s all more proof that he has no business representing Georgians in the Senate,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Amanda Sherman-Baity said in a statement.

The New Republic: Where Does Herschel Walker Live? His Tax Records Say His Home Is In Texas.

• Just as Mehmet Oz was attacked for being a New Jersey outsider running in a Pennsylvania Senate race, Walker’s legitimacy as a candidate is up for debate. Even if Walker’s candidacy is up to legal snuff, the perception of him simply acting as a carpetbagging vestige of the Republican party risks his bid.

• And it won’t be easy for Walker to shake that perception. Republicans literally walk Walker around from appearance to appearance, proudly describing how the Black candidate apparently serves as a tool for the party’s political ambitions. It’s hard not to see Walker as a Republican transplant just being used by the party to try winning an election.

MSNBC: Even now, Herschel Walker can’t quite shake residency questions

• When chatter about Herschel Walker’s prospective Senate campaign grew louder last year, one problem loomed large: The Republican lived in Texas, but he was expected to run in Georgia.

• With this in mind, Walker, after decades of living in the Lone Star State, moved back to Georgia in August 2021 and launched a problematic political career soon after. This was not without complications: On the campaign trail, the GOP candidate continued to refer to his “home in Texas,” even as he tried to appeal to voters in Georgia.

• But as it turns out, the challenges were not just rhetorical: CNN reported this morning that Walker is getting a tax break in Texas on his Dallas-area home that’s intended “only for a primary residence.”

Politico Playbook PM: Shades of Dr. Oz

• Republican HERSCHEL WALKER got a homestead tax exemption in Texas — a break that’s only for a primary residence — this year, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck reveal. The exemption kept about $1,500 in Walker’s pocket, but it also raises questions about him “potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office.” […] Walker lived in Texas for decades before registering to vote in Georgia last year. His campaign didn’t respond to CNN.

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