Herschel Walker wins Georgia's Republican Senate primary

May 24th, 2022

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to supporters during a campaign stop, May 14, 2022, in Ellijay, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Football great Herschel Walker, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won Georgia’s GOP Senate primary.

Walker defeated five fellow Republicans, including Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and former Trump administration official and Navy veteran Latham Saddler.

Walker is a political newcomer but has nearly unmatched name recognition in Georgia from his days as a college football running back. He led the University of Georgia football team to a national title during the 1980 season and won the Heisman Trophy in 1982.

Trump, a close friend of Walker’s, backed his run despite questions about Walker’s business dealings and history of violence against women. Walker has been open about his long struggle with mental illness and acknowledged violent urges.
He won the primary despite skipping debates with his Republican opponents and making some gaffes.

On the Democratic side, Warnock is looking to defend the seat he narrowly won in a special election in 2021. He easily defeated beauty industry professional Tamara Johnson-Shealey in Tuesday’s primary.
A general election matchup between Warnock and Walker would mark the first time that two major-party candidates for U.S. Senate in Georgia were Black.

Warnock is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. He became the first Black senator elected from Georgia when he defeated appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in 2021 weeks after Democrats won the state’s presidential election for the first time since 1992.

As a senator, Warnock has derided Republicans’ push for tighter voting rules, calling them “Jim Crow in new clothes;” stressed his work in bringing home funding for health care, national security research and other projects; and highlighted his efforts to try to cap the cost of insulin and temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax.

Walker — a political newcomer — has nearly unmatched name recognition in Georgia from his days as a college football running back. He led the University of Georgia football team to a national title during the 1980 season and won the Heisman Trophy in 1982. He counts Trump as a close friend.

The Trump endorsement was the chief reason Pam Leonard said she voted for Walker. But the 71-year-old said Tuesday outside of a polling place in Woodstock that she remembers those football days, too.

“I know his story,” Leonard said. “Especially when he was a child, he was bullied and he built himself up by running against trains. That takes a lot of gumption.”

Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Woodstock, Georgia, contributed to this report.