FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2022 
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In Choice About Competence & Character, Georgians Hold Walker’s History of Lies, Scams, and Violence Against Him 

“It’s Pretty Clear To Me That Walker Is Not Capable Of Being A U.S. Senator” 

“There Were Nine Republicans On The Statewide Ballot And Herschel Walker Got The Fewest Votes Of All Of Them.”

Atlanta, GA – Georgians are mobilizing behind Reverend Warnock ahead of the December 6th runoff and making it clear that they are deeply troubled by Herschel Walker’s pattern of lies, scams, and violence. In Tuesday’s election, Walker received 200,000 less votes than Brian Kemp with Georgians pointing to Walker’s lies and the fact he is “not capable” as reasons for voting against him. 

Read more below:

The New York Times: Unwilling to Hold Their Nose and Vote, Ticket-Splitters Make Their Mark

• For years they seemed to be an ever-more-endangered species, increasingly subsumed by the bitter tribalism that has come to define the nation’s politics.

• And in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, defeated the Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, by about 8 percentage points, while the Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, embroiled in significant controversies in his personal life, narrowly trailed Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democrats’ nominee, on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a runoff election.

• “It’s pretty clear to me that Walker is not capable of being a U.S. senator,” said Brian Gage, 48, of Sandy Springs, Ga., who voted for former President Donald J. Trump in 2020 and this year backed Mr. Kemp and, reluctantly, Mr. Warnock. “His marital issues and his domestic violence issues, and things like that, yeah, those concern me,” he said of Mr. Walker.

• In Georgia, the Senate race centered to a striking degree on personal character. Mr. Walker, who ran as a staunch social conservative, faced accusations of domestic violence from his ex-wife, and two women have said he paid for their abortions. He has denied the latter accusations.

• Jeffrey Hackling, 72, said he voted for Mr. Kemp and Mr. Warnock. His decision to vote for Mr. Warnock was “tough,” he said, and he felt pressure from other Republicans in his life, including his wife, to vote for Mr. Walker — but he couldn’t get there, alarmed by Mr. Walker’s record.

• “I did not like Herschel Walker, all the lies that he did and said,” said Mr. Hackling, a Republican from Milton, Ga. “A lot of people wanted to talk me into voting for a Republican but I did not like him, I did not like the person.”

AJC: After big losses, Democrats think Warnock may have the answers they need

• “Do we want to call Georgia center-right? Do we want to call it purple with more of a reddish tinge?” said Amy Steigerwalt, a Georgia State University political scientist. “It’s not overwhelming one way or another.”

• In all, Walker received roughly 200,000 fewer votes than Kemp. Walker’s drop-off was particularly pronounced in metro Atlanta, a nexus of mainstream Republicans where Trump also struggled. But he also fared poorly in deep-red areas of North Georgia.

• One of those split-ticket voters is Beau Stubbs, who generally votes for Republicans but couldn’t put aside his concerns about Walker, who has a history of violent behavior, false claims on the campaign trail and bizarre statements about key policy issues.

• I absolutely couldn’t vote for Walker,” Stubbs said. “Republicans need to divorce from Trump and his progeny, even if it means we don’t take the Senate.

11Alive: How did Georgia U.S. Senate race end up in a runoff? Here’s the breakdown

• Republicans won every other statewide election in Georgia earlier this week – except for a U.S. Senate seat.

• Incumbent Raphael Warnock got more votes than any other Democrat candidate in the state, falling less than a percentage point shy of defeating Republican Herschel Walker. But neither candidate received the required 50% plus 1 vote needed to avoid a Dec. 6 runoff.

• Walker was the only Republican candidate with less than two million votes in Tuesday’s election.

• Walker got fewer votes than Kemp in all of Georgia’s 159 counties.

• “The reason why he underperformed relative to the other Republican candidates was because of the challenges we talked an awful lot about this cycle,” said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie. “He is a novice candidate who didn’t always indicate that he had a firm grasp of the issues, and he was dogged by personal challenges.”

Watch CNN’s Coverage HERE 

• Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan: “… I think a lot of Republicans like me are waking up this morning going what could’ve been. What could’ve been if we would’ve picked a better candidate that could’ve won with a margin like Brian Kemp?”

• Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan: “There were 200,000 folks by quick math this morning that were ticket splitters – that voted for Brian Kemp and specifically voted for Raphael Warnock and not for Herschel Walker. 

Listen to WABE’s Coverage HERE

• Sam Gringlas, WABE: “…But what’s already clear is that Walker underperformed his fellow Republican Georgia governor Brian Kemp, likely in part because Walker’s campaign was dogged by scandals from the start.

Watch 11Alive’s Coverage HERE 

• Doug Richards, 11Alive: “There were nine Republicans on the statewide ballot yesterday and Herschel Walker got the fewest votes of all of them.
   
• Doug Richards, 11Alive: “Kemp led a slate of Republicans that won statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, and six other positions with an average margin of about 7.3%, more than a quarter million votes in each race. All those Republicans outpolled Walker who lagged behind Warnock by less than a percentage point at about 34,000 votes.” 
   

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