The emerging dynamic five weeks before the election encapsulated a predicament Republicans are confronting in the midterms.
National Republican leaders such as former president Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) on Tuesday rallied behind Herschel Walker, defending the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in Georgia after he denied a report that he paid for a girlfriend to get an abortion in 2009.
But Republican leaders and activists in Georgia expressed unease with Walker’s candidacy after his personal life was yet again under the spotlight in a crucial midterm battleground, voicing worries that they elevated a flawed candidate who could complicate efforts to win back the Senate.
The emerging dynamic five weeks before Walker faces Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) underlines a predicament Republicans are confronting. Many see Georgia as one of the best opportunities to flip a Senate seat, and they feel compelled to continue boosting their candidate, who polls show is competitive. Yet in elevating an untested political newcomer who has faced allegations of stalking, violent threats and hypocrisy in his personal life as well as criticism over false claims, they are bracing for a potentially difficult final stretch.
“I don’t think anybody got on the internet last night or got on Twitter last night and said this is going to be good for Herschel Walker,” said Lane Flynn, a former chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Party. “The question going forward is how transactional is the average voter going to be — not necessarily the hardcore super GOP person. But the suburban mom or … people who skipped the last election, maybe voted blue. Can they be brought back?”
Republicans cannot replace Walker on the ballot this late into the campaign, and several suggested doing so would not be the right move even if they could. Instead, many said they hoped Walker could weather this storm, as Trump was able to win over voters by striking a defiant posture amid revelations about his past seen by many as disqualifying for a candidate for public office.
On Monday, the Daily Beast published a detailed description from an unnamed girlfriend who said that the former football star encouraged her to have an abortion after she became pregnant while they were dating, wrote her a $700 check to pay for the procedure and then sent her a “get well” card.
Walker, who is campaigning as an opponent of abortion rights with no exceptions for rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother, and has voiced support for a national ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, immediately denied the report, saying in a televised interview on Fox News Channel that the account published in the Daily Beast is a “flat-out lie.” The has not independently verified the reporting from the Daily Beast.
Walker’s campaign has not clarified whether he knew the woman referenced in the story. He said on Fox News that he frequently writes large checks to people he knows, but the Walker campaign did not respond to a request for a list of other examples.
Trump on Tuesday defended Walker in a statement that he posted to Truth Social, his social media network. “They are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past,” Trump wrote.
Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, issued a statement about Walker on Tuesday, saying, “The NRSC and Republicans stand with him.” Mallory Carroll, spokeswoman for Women Speak Out PAC, a partner of the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, sounded a similar note: “Herschel Walker has denied these allegations in the strongest possible terms, and we stand firmly alongside him.”
On Tuesday morning, Walker arrived in a black SUV at a pre-scheduled private event at First Baptist Church Atlanta, a sprawling complex in a suburb north of the city. The event was advertised on Facebook as an opportunity to “Worship and Luncheon with Herschel Walker.
