More great journalism from Roger Sollenberger at The Daily Beast:
A former longtime girlfriend of Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker has come forward to detail a violent episode with the football star, who she believes is “unstable” and has “little to no control” over his mental state when he is not in treatment.
The woman, Dallas resident Cheryl Parsa, described an intimate and tumultuous five-year relationship with Walker in the 2000s, beginning shortly after his divorce and continuing for a year after the publication of his 2008 memoir about his struggle with dissociative identity disorder (DID), once known as multiple personality disorder.
Parsa, who has composed a book-length manuscript about her relationship with Walker, says she is speaking out because she is disturbed by Walker’s behavior on the campaign trail, which she claims exhibits telltale flare-ups of the disorder she tried to help him manage for half a decade.
“He’s a pathological liar. Absolutely. But it’s more than that,” Parsa, who last had regular contact with Walker in 2019, told The Daily Beast. “He knows how to manipulate his disease, in order to manipulate people, while at times being simultaneously completely out of control.” She said that when she was with Walker, he used his diagnosis as an “alibi” to “justify lying, cheating, and ultimately destroying families.”
Parsa provided a detailed account of a 2005 incident that turned violent after she caught Walker with another woman at his Dallas condo. She said Walker grew enraged, put his hands on her chest and neck, and swung his fist at her. “I thought he was going to beat me,” she recalled, and fled in fear.
Parsa is one of five women who were romantically involved with Walker who spoke to The Daily Beast for this article. All of them described a habit of lying and infidelity—including one woman who claimed she had an affair with Walker while he was married in the 1990s. All five women said they were willing to speak to expose the behavior of the man they now see running for Senate.
But Walker thinks he can avoid all of this bad press by doubling down on transphobia to rile up his base:
Driving the news: While Warnock's closing message targets Walker's "character and competence" and split-ticket voters, one of Walker's final ads features former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines — an advocate for "fairness in women's sports" who has campaigned with Walker repeatedly.
Between the lines: A Walker campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity tells Axios the focus on the issue is due to its perceived ability to motivate GOP base and center or right-of-center voters who are unsure of or opposed to transgender athletes.
- Republican strategists tell Axios that Walker's background as a former star athlete also gives him credibility on the issue after personal controversies and lack of political experience have hurt his reputation.
Be smart: Walker needs more moderate voters to beat Warnock in a runoff after falling 200,000 votes behind Gov. Brian Kemp in November.
Catch up quick: Walker has regularly raised the issue on the campaign trail throughout the year and broadly criticized Warnock for a voting record aligned with President Biden.
- "His message is the same, and he hasn't changed. He's the same person, and so why would you change your message?" Georgia RNC committeewoman Ginger Howard told Axios.
What he's saying: "Men should not be in women's sports," Walker said at a recent McDonough, Ga. campaign stop with Gaines. "That's like asking me to compete against your daughter. You don't want that," he said to laughter and applause.
- Walker also often criticizes Warnock regarding nonbinary gender identity and pronoun usage: "The definition of a woman is written in my Bible, and it says: man and woman," he added.
- "I don't even know what a pronoun is. I'm sick and tired of this pronoun stuff," he said this week in Dalton, Ga.
Here’s the latest polling out of Georgia today:
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) holds a narrow 2-percentage point lead over Republican rival Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff, according to a new Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey.
The poll released on Thursday found that 49 percent of very likely voters surveyed said they would back Warnock, compared to 47 percent who said they would vote for Walker. A separate 4 percent said they were undecided; that polling falls within the margin of error, effectively tying the two candidates.
When undecided voters were asked which candidate they were leaning toward, support for Warnock increased to 51 percent while Walker’s support rose to 49 percent.
But when respondents were asked who they expected would win the Georgia Senate runoff regardless of whom they supported, a wider gap emerged: 57 percent said they expected Warnock to prevail compared to 43 percent who said Walker would.
The development comes less than a week before Georgia holds its runoff election, the last Senate election of the November midterms. Warnock is vying for his first full-term in office after he won a special election in 2020 against former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), but neither he nor Walker notched at least half of the vote needed to avoid a December runoff.
Also, friendly reminder, a big name guest is going to be in Atlanta today:
Former President Barack Obama will return to Georgia Thursday to fire up voters for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock ahead of Georgia’s runoff on Tuesday.
The visit marks the second time Obama will campaign in the Peach State this election cycle. Less than five weeks ago, thousands of people packed an Atlanta-area auditorium to see the nation’s first Black president stump with Warnock and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams.
Abrams lost to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp in the general election, but the neck-and-neck race between Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker was thrown into a runoff after neither candidate cleared the 50% benchmark needed to win outright. Vote totals showed Walker and Warnock were separated by less than 1 percentage point.
In addition to the rally, Obama also recorded an ad for the Warnock campaign, calling the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church “my friend.”
“There aren’t a lot of people in Washington like Rev. Warnock and that’s exactly why we need to send him back,” Obama said in the spot.
“This is going to be a close race, and we can’t afford to get it wrong,” he continued.