Two years ago, the University of Georgia football icon and then-Senate candidate Herschel Walker was seen by many Republicans as a future star in the party.
Walker, running against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the Georgia Senate race, won over many establishment politicians. GOP voters overwhelmingly coalesced around his campaign. And many observers predicted that a “red wave” would sweep him into office.
But Walker — weighed down by numerous controversies and his inability to appeal to moderates in the competitive race — eventually lost to Warnock in a December 2022 runoff election.
Walker is not running for another elected position in 2024. However, he still has $4.3 million left in the bank from his Senate run, much to the frustration of Republicans in Georgia and Washington — who say that the money could go a long way in aiding their party this year — according to Politico.
“Those resources were solicited and given to support his candidacy as a Georgia Republican, and unless he intends to use them again for his own candidacy, I sure hope the favor would be returned,” ex-Georgia Republican Party chairman John Watson told the outlet.
Walker previously contributed $100,000 to the National Republican Senate Committee for a recount fund, and he also gave roughly $400,000 to charities, according to Politico.
But Walker so far has not given any indication that he will be a major player in Georgia politics this year.
After his Senate loss, he returned to the University of Georgia to complete his undergraduate degree.
When contacted by Politico about the unspent funds, Walker said that there “wasn’t money left in my account.” He soon ended the call, telling the outlet that he needed to complete a paper.
Over the past year, the Georgia GOP has been strained financially as it has paid the legal fees of the alternate fake electors who have faced charges over their efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in the state.
Two-term Gov. Brian Kemp — a conservative who clashed with Trump-aligned figures over the 2020 election — has largely bypassed the state party by utilizing his own political committee to fundraise.
And Trump is playing catch-up financially as he continues to trail the Biden campaign in the money race.
With Georgia once again in focus as a key swing state in November, both Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a widespread campaign to turn out their respective bases.
The stakes couldn’t be higher: Trump won Georgia in 2016 but lost the state to Biden in 2020, largely because the president ran up the score in metropolitan Atlanta and among Black voters in rural Georgia. The former president very much wants to win the state again. But Biden is eager to hold Georgia, as his 2020 win in the state was one of the biggest electoral triumphs for Democrats that year.
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