In a perfect example of the Republican party beginning to devour itself, a GOP group has begun running ads against Georgia senate nominee and Trump-endorsee Herschel Walker.
Part of a $10 million effort to “defeat anti-democracy Republicans in key battleground states,” the Republican Accountability PAC (RAPAC) launched a $1 million ad slamming Walker.
“Herschel Walker might have been a great football player, but he clearly doesn’t deserve to be a senator… That’s why our campaign is built around the voices of Georgia Republicans who know that he’s unfit for office,” Sarah Longwell, the treasurer of RAPAC, said in a statement sent to The Hill.
RELATED STORY: In Georgia Senate race, Herschel Walker's running against his own mouth—and from every debate
The new ad, titled The Real Herschel Walker, focuses on the Heisman Trophy winner’s history of domestic violence. His ex-wife, Cindy DeAngelis, is featured, as HuffPost notes.
RPAC’s website is dedicated to the takedown of Walker and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. The website highlights allegations of domestic abuse against Walker, as well as his lack of “understanding of the major problems facing Georgians.”
Daily Kos has covered the numerous and real issues Walker has presented as a nominee and now candidate.
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Walker can’t tell the truth, articulate a cogent thought, or explain legislation comprehensively, and aside from accepting one debate where he can get the topics ahead of time, he can’t even debate his Democratic rival, Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Walker has touted a bogus anti-COVID-19 spray to keep the virus away, hid from the public (and his own campaign staff!) that he’d fathered three children, said he’d graduated from college when didn’t, and claimed that he’d co-founded a veterans organization when he hadn’t. Walker is incompetent and shouldn’t be running for senate in Georgia or anywhere.
RAPAC writes that “Walker also lied about the 2020 election, including the outrageous proposal that Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin should re-run their elections.”
In a statement sent to The Hill, Walker’s camp said:
The “ad itself is incredibly misleading, and this liberal dark money group and their allies should be ashamed of their efforts. … As you can see in the full interview, Herschel has taken full responsibility for his actions, had treatment for years, and has worked to end the stigma around mental health,” the statement reads. “Herschel is going to keep working to support those struggling with mental health issues like he did, no matter how many million-dollar misleading ads are run by Raphael Warnock and out-of-state groups.”
According to Politico, Walker is trailing in the polls to Warnock, but the two are polling so closely that there’s a worry that the election might end in a runoff.
Georgia is not a blue state—not yet, anyway—and this year’s midterm will certainly feel like a 2020 Groundhog Day if Warnock can’t clear the 50% mark in November. In Georgia, a candidate must get a majority vote. Otherwise, the top two nominees must head into a special election runoff—the exact same situation that happened in 2020 in the senate race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue.
Democrats are, once again, in a battle for control of the Senate. Sukari Johnson, chair of the Clayton County Democratic Party, tells Politico. “Nobody wants a runoff. … Because it’s very difficult for people to come back out, and at that point, you’re spending time and money to get people to come back out. And nobody wants to do that after November.”
