Another piece of the October surprise that has derailed Herschel Walker’s campaign, at least for the moment, was revealed Wednesday night. The Daily Beast reported on Monday that a woman claims that Walker paid for her abortion in 2009 and she has the receipt to prove it. The woman’s name was not revealed. Walker’s response was to deny the accusation, say he didn’t know who his accuser could be, and claim he would file a defamation lawsuit. As of Wednesday, a lawsuit had not been filed.

On Wednesday night, the Daily Beast revealed that the woman, still unnamed, is also the mother of one of his children. To be clear, she says Walker paid for her abortion and then years after the abortion, she got pregnant by him again and this time had the baby. She did say, though, that Walker said it wasn’t a good time for him to have a baby both times. Walker did not respond to the second shoe dropping in this story. He does, however, have an event scheduled today in Georgia so reporters will be ready to pursue this, no doubt.

I’ll admit that I didn’t particularly want to write about this story at all. It’s a kind of real-life soap opera that makes observers cringe and move away. In this case the stakes are even greater because Walker is running for political office. Not just any political office, either. He’s running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, a win that Republicans badly need in order to flip the majority control of the Senate in the midterm elections. This race was dicey enough but Walker was slowly gaining traction and giving Democrat Raphael Warnock, the incumbent, a real race. The question now is whether or not voters will absorb the October surprise that has hit Walker’s campaign as they have other details. To be blunt, neither Walker nor Warnock are great candidates. Warnock has plenty of ugly baggage of his own, including incidents of domestic violence and that time he ran over his wife with his car.

To further complicate the confusion Walker’s supporters were feeling after the abortion story came out, his son Christian, a Trump-supporting conservative 23 year old influencer on social media let loose with his disgust for his father. He said he’s done with his father and his campaign.

Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one. He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it.

I’m done.

— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022

I don’t care about someone who has a bad past and takes accountability. But how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some “moral, Christian, upright man.” You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives. How dare you.

— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022

If his son is turning on him now, does that mean the story is true? Or does it mean his son has other reasons to air the family’s dirty laundry now? I don’t know and no one does other than Christian and his father. It’s cringey and sad, though, and I’ll hope the two can reconcile when things settle down or after the election.

Why hasn’t Walker filed that defamation lawsuit, though? If the claim is outlandish and a malicious lie, why not do it? Walker probably has several very competent lawyers at the ready if their services are needed.

The Georgia race is a good example of how important it is to weed out bad candidates in a primary. Walker was chosen by Trump and Trump’s endorsement helped him win the Republican primary. The thing is that Walker was never a good candidate. He lived for most of the past few decades in Texas, not Georgia. He’s a Georgia football legend, that’s true enough, but he has no political experience and it shows. Primary voters, though, didn’t seem to care and voted for him anyway. There is a certain appeal for some voters to support outsiders in campaigns.

Herschel Walker wrote a book about his life and past problems. He said that anyone with questions about his personal behavior or moral judgements should just read his book. That may work for his book promotion team but that doesn’t fly with voters. They want answers from the mouth of the candidate. It’s like when a candidate tells someone to go look an issue up on his or her website. No. The candidate should stand there and give an answer.

On Wednesday, Walker’s campaign manager posted his latest ad on Twitter. It deals with his mental health issues and attacks Warnock.

🚨🚨🚨 New @HerschelWalker ad:

“As everyone knows, I had a real battle with mental health — even wrote a book about it. By the grace of God, I’ve overcome it.” #gapol #gasen pic.twitter.com/JRs9OnuvxI

— Mallory Blount (@malloryblount) October 5, 2022

The usual suspects who preach they are conserving conservatism by supporting Democrats had thoughts.

I’d be more willing to buy the redemption arc if he wasn’t *currently* lying about so many things—including lying to his current campaign staff about the four secret kids he fathered. https://t.co/E8JQOm94NE

— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) October 5, 2022

And on it goes. Everyone’s an expert on redemption and morality these days, right? I think Georgia voters have the shortcomings of both candidates already figured out. These are not perfect candidates. They are, however, a choice between a pro-life, fiscally conservative candidate and a Democrat who supports taxpayer-funded abortion up to birth. Warnock has voted 100% with every crazy progressive policy initiative and big-spending agenda of Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democrats. Walker doesn’t have a voting record to reference but he does talk about lowering taxes and shrinking government.

Real Clear Politics aggregate averaging has Warnock up by 3.8 points. Can Walker still win? Yes. Warnock is thrilled to allow the campaign to be all about abortion because then his voting record isn’t the center of the discussion. The Democrats have voted in favor of Joe Biden’s bone-headed policies and initiatives that have caused America’s highest inflation in 40 years and deliberately made our country energy dependent on other countries. It is Herschel Walker’s job to turn the conversation around and focus on the bread and butter issues that every American faces every day. He must focus voters on what Warnock has done, not on what he says. And, he needs to come clean with voters. Did he do what he is accused of doing? It’s possible he’s innocent but apparently rumors have been flying for months. He should do what he did when he acknowledged children he’s fathered and move on. Ask for forgiveness for poor judgement and promise to be worthy of their votes. Voters just want the truth.