Whatever Walker ends up doing, he should do it soon. Senate hopefuls in Georgia are waiting around for him to make a decision, knowing he’ll have Trump’s support if he gets in. And while they’re waiting, Raphael Warnock is out there raising big bucks for all-out war next fall.
There are many GOPers more qualified than Walker but I don’t know that there’s anyone more likely to win. He’s Georgia’s greatest football hero, a household name for decades. He might be able to attract black voters to a greater extent than any alternative. As kooky as he can be, he probably *is* the party’s best chance at taking back the seat.
Who’s the alternative? Fake populist and charisma vacuum Kelly Loeffler, who’s already lost once to Warnock? She probably won’t even challenge Walker in a primary if he decides to run, according to her allies, so assured is her defeat.
He tweeted this video out 12 days ago. Bear in mind that Walker has lived in Texas for years, which makes the Georgia plates on his car here noteworthy. The reference to running with the big dogs is an allusion to his famous career at UGA, of course.
Georgia on my mind pic.twitter.com/JdKJ193Nkn
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) June 17, 2021
Trump himself claimed this morning that Walker’s preparing to get in:
“He told me he’s going to, and I think he will,” Trump said Tuesday on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. “I had dinner with him a week ago. He’s a great guy. He’s a patriot. He’s a very loyal person.”…
Still, even with Trump’s backing, Walker would have to clear a number of other obstacles, starting with a move to Georgia. He also must win over conservatives unfamiliar with his political leanings, hone policy stances, court donors and brace for scrutiny into a past that includes struggles with mental illness…
“I think he’d win. It would be very, very hard to beat Herschel,” Trump said on the show, which aired in Atlanta on XTRA 106.3 FM. “I think beating him will be very tough. And I think he’ll run.”
Yeah, I think he’s the favorite. Read this post from February about his prospects in the race; the fact that it’s now almost July should help explain why Georgia Republicans are so impatient.
Democrats have two early lines of attack on Walker, one delicate, one less so. The delicate one is his history of multiple personality disorder, which led to episodes of him playing Russian roulette(!) and allegedly once putting a gun to his ex-wife’s head. Whether his health struggle will earn him sympathy or make people nervous that he’s not “leadership material” is anyone’s guess. The other line of attack is straightforward: Ignore Herschel, who’s bound to be popular, and run against Trump instead. A local football hero like Walker won’t antagonize suburbanites but Trump will, and already has. If he ends up campaigning for Walker in Georgia, which is likely, Dems will try to reconstitute Biden’s winning 2020 coalition there by treating a vote for Walker as a vote for Trump.
Maybe Dems will combine the two lines of attack by focusing on Walker’s fondness for election conspiracy theories, the sort of thing that will endear him to MAGA fans but may irritate swing voters who opted for Biden in 2020 and are tired of hearing that their state was rigged.
What I don’t understand is why Walker wants to run for Senate instead of governor. Trump’s been looking for someone to primary his nemesis, Brian Kemp. He tried to get Doug Collins to do it before Collins declined, then he succeeded in getting Vernon Jones to do it. But Walker would be a stronger primary candidate than Jones. And he’d enjoy the job more if he won. He’d get to hang around Atlanta gladhanding constituents and enjoying his status as the king of Georgia football and now of the state. As it is, if he beats Warnock he’ll be stuck sitting through tedious committee meetings in D.C., just one vote out of 100 in the Senate. Winning the gubernatorial race would also make him a hero to Republicans since it would mean that he defeated Stacey Abrams, all but ending her near-term national ambitions. Why does he want to be a senator instead of a governor?
