“Our country is at a crossroads and I can no longer sit on the sidelines,” Walker said in a statement. “In the United States Senate I will uphold conservative values and get our country going in the right direction. It’s time to have leaders in Washington who fight to protect the American dream for everyone.”
“Herschel Walker understands the situation our country is in now and the importance of those who love this country to take a step forward and do whatever it takes to save it,” said Randy Evans, a Georgia lawyer and former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg to the Trump administration.
But other GOP strategists and lawmakers from Georgia to Washington, DC, are deeply concerned about Walker’s campaign, fearing that Walker could cost the GOP a winning seat. Three Republican candidates: Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, construction firm owner Kelvin King, and Navy banking executive and veteran Latham Saddler, have already announced their campaigns.
Walker’s campaign noted that he grew up in Wrightsville, Georgia, said he was successful as a professional athlete and in his various businesses. He also highlighted the campaign that he “dedicated his life to helping other people with similar struggles” to his dissociative identity disorder and visited “thousands of troops and patients struggling with mental health.”
“The United States is the largest country in the world, but too many politicians in Washington are afraid to say so,” Walker said. “Where else could a poor boy from a small Georgia town become a high school valedictor, win the Heisman Trophy, play professional football, represent the United States at the Olympics, and become a CEO of various companies? I have lived the American dream, but I worry that it will escape for many people. ”
“Walker’s entry into the chaotic primary of the Georgia GOP Senate is the nightmare scenario that Republicans have gone through the whole cycle trying to avoid,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for Georgia’s Democratic Party. “At the end of this long, divisive and expensive intra-party struggle, it will be clear that none of these candidates will focus on the issues that most interest Georgians.”
Walker has a long-standing relationship with the former president dating back to 1984, when Trump, then owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, gave him a contract extension.
They kept in touch. Donald Trump Jr. explains in his book “Triggered” that he went to Disney World when he was 6 with Walker’s family and that Walker would visit the Trumps at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Walker later appeared on NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” with Trump and cheered on his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids.
In December, Walker tweeted a video supporting Trump’s effort to undo his loss to then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Trump responded, “Herschel is telling the truth!
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.