Football legend Herschel Walker had just finished cruising to an easy primary win in Georgia’s Senate race Tuesday night when Democrats let him know the easy campaigning is over.
In a hostile welcome to the general election, the Democratic Party of Georgia released a web video featuring a montage of TV news clips and torn-from-the-headlines controversies about Walker’s past and present — from campaign finance issues to his questioning of evolution to exaggerations about his education to questionable health products and a dubious mist he promoted as a Covid cure.
“Georgians deserve a senator who is up for the job,” reads the on-screen text. “Herschel Walker has proven he’s not.”
Running 1 minute and 18 seconds, the web ad doesn’t even touch the issues of domestic violence that surfaced during the primary.
But Democrats promise those hits are coming as part of a deluge of attack ads to help Sen. Raphael Warnock survive what’s shaping up to be a tough election year for Democrats.
Walker’s campaign and backers say they’ll make the race about President Joe Biden, who is unpopular in the state, and the toll of inflation on voters’ pocketbooks. The National Republican Senatorial Committee this week struck first in paid media by launching a $1 million TV ad campaign tying Warnock to Biden.
“This is a referendum on Biden’s policies. It won’t be a referendum on Herschel,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whose political operation formed the backbone of Walker’s primary campaign. “Democrats will try to make it about Herschel, and Herschel is going to make it about Georgia.”
Said Senator Mitch McConnell, “Asked about Walker’s past problems in an interview earlier this year, McConnell told CNN: “I looked into Herschel Walker’s record – I’m entirely comfortable with him.”