Former Football Star Herschel Walker to Campaign for Georgia Senate Seat

Herschel Walker 

One of the greatest running backs in college football history has decided to tote the ball for the Republican Party in an effort to lead it to victory in one of its most important contests in recent history.

Herschel Walker, the 59-year-old who won the Heisman and was a three-time All-American while playing at the University of Georgia in the early 80s, filed paperwork Tuesday to enter U.S. Senate race in Georgia, in a bid to defeat and unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022.

The move ends month of speculation whether-or-not the longtime Republican, former NFL star, Olympian (Walker competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, as a member of the United States' bobsleigh team), mixed martial artist and chicken tycoon —would enter the race against Warnock, the pastor of Georgia’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, whose slim victory over Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a closely watched runoff election, helped give control of the Senate to Democrats in January.

Walker, a longtime Texas resident who registered to vote in Georgia Aug. 17 using an Atlanta residence owned by his wife Julie Blanchard prior to filing Federal Election Commission papers declaring his candidacy, kept mum following the move which seems to have been motivated by former President Donald Trump.

The two are longtime allies. Walker, who played for a team owned by Trump early in his career and appeared on the real estate mogul’s Celebrity Apprentice reality show was a fixture at MAGA rallies and came to the defense of his good friend against claims of racism following the racial unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by Minneapolis police in 2020.

“People who think that don’t know what they’re talking about,” Walker said. “Growing up in the Deep South I've seen racism up close. I know what it is, and it isn’t Donald Trump.”

Herschel Walker: "It hurts my soul to hear the terrible names that people call Donald. The worst one is 'racist.' I take it as a personal insult that people would think I would have a 37-year friendship with a racist." #RNC2020 #RepublicanConvention pic.twitter.com/igTALvteaL

— The Hill (@thehill) August 25, 2020

In March Trump issued a statement urging Walker to run. 

“Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the legendary Herschel Walker ran for the United States Senate in Georgia?” Trump said. “He would be unstoppable, just like he was when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the NFL. He is also a GREAT person. Run Herschel, run!” 

In June the ex-president doubled down, telling The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, replacements for the recently deceased Rush Limbaugh, that Walker told him he would run when the two dined together and added, “He’s a great guy. He’s a patriot. He’s a very loyal person. They love him in Georgia, I’ll tell you.”

The name recognition Walker brings to the race is immense. Republicans would love to have a prominent black candidate to face off with the pioneering preacher, but Walker has some baggage that might impede his efforts beyond his last-minute return to the state of his birth just to run for office. 

The Associated Press reported “that a review of public records uncovered detailed accusations that Walker repeatedly threatened the life of his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, by telling her relatives he would kill Grossman and her new boyfriend. Walker denied the accusations, but a judge granted a protective order in 2005 and for a time barred Walker from owning guns.”

In 2008, the AP added, Walker wrote a book that detailed his struggles with mental illness. He wrote that he'd been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder. He said he constructed alternate personalities as a defense against bullying he suffered as a stuttering, overweight child.