US Congressional Election – The Man Who Could Cost Republicans Out of US Senate – News

Football legend Herschel Walker wants a seat in the Senate. With the support of Donald Trump, he is running for the small chamber of the US Congress. But his election campaign is marked by scandals and lies.

It’s a competitive life: Herschel Walker was a track and field athlete, martial artist and bobsledder. Above all, he was a very successful football player – a legendary “running back” until he retired in 1997. Now the 60-year-old wants to be elected to the Senate in Washington. He competes in Georgia, where he grew up and played football for his early years.

That was his own idea, says Walker. But Donald Trump may also have played an important role. “Trump persuaded one of his friends, Herschel Walker, to run for office,” says Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia for decades. “It probably helped that Walker accepted every challenge that was offered to him. In any case, he has never shown any political ambitions so far.”

Walker easily won the primaries. As such, he is now the Republican nominee, set to defeat his Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock, who secured the hotly contested Senate seat in the last election, in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

The lies of Herschel Walker

But Walker is caught up in numerous untruths: He claimed, for example, that he had a university degree and that he once worked as a law enforcement officer. Both are lies.

Walker’s statement that absent fathers who don’t take care of their children was a huge problem in African American families soon resonated with him: It was revealed that Walker, himself an African American, has an illegitimate son whom he cares for didn’t want to care. Two other illegitimate children were later known.

All of this offers a lot of potential for attack – and his opponents cannibalize these untruths, for example in election campaign videos.

A mental illness has been known for some time: Walker himself has described his dissociative identity disorder in a book.

The risk candidate

The many untruths and confused television appearances raise doubts as to whether Walker is a match for his opponent. So far he has avoided a direct debate. “In such debates, the hard questions are asked, not only about Walker’s untruths, but also about many political issues,” says political scientist Bullock. “Because Herschel Walker has never been politically involved, he is not prepared for it.”

Legend:

Walker has become a real risk for Republicans – in Georgia of all places, a state that is more contested than almost any other. «

Keystone/Erik S. Lesser

“About 45 percent in Georgia vote Republican no matter who runs, no matter what comes out about them — and about 45 percent vote Democratic,” Bullock said. Only about 10 percent of the electorate is being fought for, mostly college-educated whites, especially white women in the suburbs. The fact that several women accuse Walker of threats and domestic violence shouldn’t exactly help him with this group of voters.

A crucial race

In Georgia, the Republicans lost two Senate seats in the last election, losing a majority in the small chamber. In November they want to bring back this majority. The race in Georgia is one of the crucial ones.

If Walker loses the election, it could mean Republicans miss the Senate majority again in Georgia. One of the culprits would be Donald Trump. After all, it was he who sent his friend into this competition.