Former University of Georgia football icon Herschel Walker will join next year’s race to represent the Peach State in the US Senate, former President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
“He told me he’s going to, and I think he will,” Trump told “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” of the 59-year-old Walker. “I had dinner with him a week ago. He’s a great guy. He’s a patriot, and he’s a very loyal person. He’s a very strong person. They love him in Georgia … He is a fantastic guy, and they love him.
“So I think he’d win,” Trump added. “I think it would be very, very hard to beat Herschel. I mean, they have the ballads. They made ballads to Herschel. They sing them all the time. They still sing them. So I think beating him would be very tough, and I think he’s going to run.”
In a statement late Tuesday, Walker said he was “humbled by the encouragement from people all around Georgia and across the country who want me to run for US Senate” and “honored to have President Donald J. Trump’s encouragement, too.
“We are looking at the race closely and we will make a final decision sometime soon,” Walker went on.
“I’m not a politician – I’m working on my timetable, not anyone else’s … Know this much, if I run, I’ll be all-in, and we will do whatever it takes to win for Georgia.”
Walker is seen as the likely favorite if he enters the GOP primary battle for the right to face Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Warnock defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a special election earlier this year and can run for a full six-year term in 2022.
The relationship between Trump and Walker, a former Heisman Trophy winner and two-time NFL Pro Bowler, dates back to Walker’s days playing for the Trump-owned New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. Walker endorsed Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and spoke at last year’s Republican National Convention. Trump himself urged Walker to enter the race in March, exhorting the former running back to “Run Herschel, run!”
So far, the most notable Georgia Republican to throw their hat into the ring against Warnock is Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. However, Loeffler has expressed interest in retaking the seat she lost this past January, while US Reps. Buddy Carter and Drew Ferguson are also said to be weighing a bid — though Carter has said publicly that he won’t run if Walker gets in the race.
It is not clear when or if Walker will announce his candidacy, which has left the rest of his would-be competitors in limbo while Republican fundraisers and strategists fret about Warnock building a big cash advantage without having to face a competitive primary.
“I guess my hope is that if Herschel does it, he decides to do it sooner than later,” Eric Tanenblatt, a top national Republican fundraiser and a principal at the law firm Dentons, told the Associated Press last week. “You have people waiting to jump on board, but it almost becomes a little too late.”
Walker has not set up any visible political operation in Georgia, and it’s still not clear the longtime Texas resident has re-established himself in his home state. He had no presence at the annual state Republican convention or district and county conventions earlier this spring, leaving some GOPers frustrated.
“You’ve got to get out there and meet people, and it takes time to do that,” Jack Kingston, a former south Georgia congressman and 2014 Senate candidate, told the AP. “Republican primary voters get mad easily if you don’t come to their events, even if you’re Herschel Walker.”
There is also concern that Walker’s close links to Trump will turn off suburban voters who swung Georgia to Joe Biden’s column in November and helped Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff to Senate victories earlier this year.
“This whole thing just captures the issue for Republicans right now in Georgia,” GOP strategist Chip Lake told AP. “We have a whole lot of Republicans who love Donald Trump and everyone who supports him. And we have a faction that just wants to move on. To win, we have to get those two groups to vote for the same person without realizing it. Can Herschel Walker or anybody else do that?”
With Post wires
