Herschel Walker’s campaign for US Senate rocked by abortion scandal

Herschel Walker, the previous Nationwide Soccer League star who has staked his marketing campaign for the US Senate on requires a nationwide abortion ban, is dealing with recent controversy following a report that he paid a former girlfriend to finish her being pregnant in 2009.

The developments, together with criticism from his personal son, increase additional questions on Walker’s candidacy within the essential swing state of Georgia with simply over one month to go till the midterm elections, which is able to function a referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency and decide which political celebration controls Congress.

Walker is only one of a number of Republican Senate candidates who’ve courted controversy in current months, dividing a celebration that’s nonetheless grappling with how you can place itself with Donald Trump not within the White Home.

Regardless of widespread expectations that the Republicans can be in pole place heading into the midterms, the most recent opinion polls present GOP Senate candidates trailing by a number of factors in a number of swing states, together with Arizona and Pennsylvania.

“All Republicans needed to do is be regular,” stated Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and Trump critic. “As an alternative they’ve chosen lots of candidates who aren’t conventional Republicans, to place it mildly, however are sometimes form of cartoon characters.”

Walker, a political novice who’s difficult incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia, got here underneath criticism earlier this 12 months following revelations that he fathered a number of beforehand undisclosed kids. A number of senior Republican lawmakers had raised pink flags concerning the soccer star’s vulnerabilities as a candidate, however he launched his marketing campaign final 12 months on the urging of Trump.

One in every of Walker’s kids, Christian Walker, attacked his father on social media after The Every day Beast printed a narrative late on Monday alleging Herschel Walker had paid an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion, saying his father was “not a ‘household man’” and had threatened to kill him and his mom, Cindy DeAngelis Grossman. Grossman, Herschel Walker’s ex-wife, has beforehand stated her ex-husband held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He has not denied that allegation and stated he was affected by psychological well being points on the time.

On Monday, Walker, who has campaigned for a nationwide abortion ban with out exceptions, together with in circumstances of rape, incest or to guard the lifetime of the mom, launched a press release in response to The Every day Beast story, calling it a “flat-out lie” that he denied “within the strongest potential phrases”, and vowed to sue the writer. He didn’t reply to his son’s newest allegations, however later stated on Twitter: “I LOVE my son it doesn’t matter what.”

The newest controversies come as Walker and Warnock are polling neck-and-neck in a crucial race that may assist decide which celebration controls the higher chamber of Congress for the following two years. The most recent Actual Clear Politics polling common reveals the 2 males in a statistical tie, with Warnock main by lower than one level. In contrast, the Republican governor in Georgia, Brian Kemp, leads his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, by 6.6 factors, in accordance with Actual Clear Politics.

Andra Gillespie, a political-science professor at Emory College in Atlanta, stated the most recent experiences may result in “ticket splitting” subsequent month, with some conservative voters backing Kemp for governor however both not voting within the Senate race, or backing Warnock as an alternative.

“The large query is: will reasonable Republicans, will impartial voters, will the kind of voter who usually votes Republican in elections however couldn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2020 . . . view Walker as broken items and lower than the job?” Gillespie stated. She added that whereas most Republicans would seemingly keep on with Walker, Democrats wanted solely to persuade a “small sliver of the voters” to safe victory.

However Heye cautioned that controversial candidates — together with Trump himself — have triumphed in current election cycles.

“Democrats are going to inform you his race is over. Those self same Democrats . . . stated that about Donald Trump on [the] Friday afternoon that the Entry Hollywood tape got here out,” Heye stated, in reference to a video of Trump bragging about groping girls that leaked only one month earlier than the 2016 presidential election.

“Our politics have solely gotten extra tribal [since then],” Heye added.

On Tuesday, Trump launched a press release on the furore surrounding Walker, saying: “Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Pretend Information Media and clearly, the Democrats. Curiously, I’ve heard many horrible issues about his opponent, Raphael Warnock, issues that no one ought to be speaking about, so we don’t.”