Herschel Walker is a Georgia football icon and will be running against Senator Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate. Warnock is a Democrat, who holds the seat currently after winning it in 2020.
Walker is well-known throughout Georgia for his work as a runningback for the University of Georgia. He won a Heisman Award in 1982. His name is well known throughout the state, he runs as a Republican and has been endorsed in part by Donald Trump.
However, there are serious domestic violence allegations that lurk in the shadows, and he has even admitted to it in his autobiography.
Those allegations are part of an ad dropped against Walker by Gary Black’s campaign. Black, who is the Georgia Commissioner for Agriculture, wants Walker to be pushed out of first place ahead of the Georgia primaries and become the Republican nominee against Warnock. Walker is currently leading Black (66-8) by 58 percentage points in the latest poll. This gap has been quite consistent but Black wants to cut through it significantly with attack ads.
The ad in question brings up police reports and media coverage of Walker’s most disturbing incidents.
Although you may find this ad harsh, distasteful or darkly comical, the truth is Walker will continue to face it.
Walker is probably not the perfect candidate, and Black’s ad points that out. It’s presented as a “What happens if Herschel Walker wins the Republican nomination?” ad, then shows what Democrats will be saying. Which is 100 percent true, by the way, but it’s a little too clever. We know it’s not just Democrats, but Black (and other Republicans) who want to drop this bit of oppo against Walker.
For Black, it’s an opportunity to try to knock Walker out of first place, but it’s going to take a lot to do that – Walker’s consistently polling upwards of 55 points over every other Republican candidate.
Walker sees this as an opportunity for his campaign to capitalize on. You know full-well this is going to be the line of attack going forward and, frankly, it’s the best one they have against Walker. Although it can be quite effective, the campaign will benefit from seeing the attacks early on. Walker may also find a better solution.
Assuming that Walker’s campaign is competently managed. That’s still somewhat of a mystery, and this ad will serve as a test of that, too.
Black’s ad is not out of bounds, though I’m not really that much of a fan of these kinds of attacks. It raises real issues that must be answered. They must be dealt with sooner than later.
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