Walker Aids Drama-Laced Senate Bid With Solid Debate Showing
(Bloomberg) -- Republican Senate contender Herschel Walker exceeded expectations in his highly anticipated debate with incumbent Raphael Warnock in Georgia by staying on message and on the attack.
Most Read from Bloomberg
NATO-China Tension Over Ukraine Flares at Conference in Iceland
Pound and UK Bonds Rally; Stocks, Futures Advance: Markets Wrap
The Time to Buy the Dip Is Fast Approaching — for One Country
Walker entered Friday night’s debate with a campaign that for weeks has been mired in controversy and turmoil. The former college and NFL football star also faced questions about his grasp of issues after routinely making confusing and rambling statements on the trail. Moreover, he squared off against an interlocutor, Warnock, who preaches from the same storied Ebeneezer Baptist Church pulpit as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But in Friday’s debate in Savannah, Walker repeatedly tied Democrat Warnock to President Joe Biden, whose low approval ratings have been a drag on his party’s candidates in the November midterm election that will decide control of Congress.
Walker drew the first applause from the debate audience, arguing that Warnock has failed to adequately represent Georgia’s interests.
“He went to Washington but he forgot about Georgia,” Walker said. “He’s for Joe Biden, I’m for Georgia.”
While debates rarely trigger a significant change in a race’s trajectory, any major misstep by a candidate has the potential to affect the margins in a tight contest.
“Herschel was better than expected, but the bar was so low,” Adrienne Gates, a political science professor at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, said at a watch party at Manuel’s Tavern.
“This is a good performance,” Ralph Reed, a Republican political consultant and former state party chair, told reporters. “Herschel did a good job of keeping expectations low.”
Warnock began the debate cautiously, talking about policy and only barely addressing Walker. But about midway through after a series of jabs from Walker, he unleashed his first direct attacks on Walker’s character, citing reports that the Republican candidate had in the past falsely claimed to have worked in law enforcement.
“We will see time and again that my opponent has a problem with the truth,” Warnock said. “Just because he said something doesn’t mean it’s true. One thing that I haven’t done is I haven’t pretended to be a police officer and I’ve never, ever threatened a shootout with police.”
Walker flashed what appeared to be a badge and was subsequently admonished by the moderators for using a “prop,” which the rules forbid.
Walker, who opposes abortion rights, again denied the account of a woman who said he encouraged her to have an abortion and paid her for it, in response to a question from a moderator during the debate. The controversy has for weeks clouded his campaign, including public attacks on social media from his adult son.
Walker also has been accused of having children he hasn’t publicly acknowledged and of exaggerating claims about his business success. Last week, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, wrote in a opinion column published by CNN that said the party should never have put up such “an untested and unproven first-time candidate” in a vital Senate race.
The intensity with which the two candidates attacked one another put on display the stakes in a race that could decide control of the upper chamber. Early voting begins Monday for the Nov. 8 election. The Georgia contest is one of seven close Senate races that will decide whether Republicans or Democrats will control the chamber for the next two years.
Polls show the race in a statistical tie, with neither candidate on track to reach the more than 50% threshold to prevent a run-off. A recent poll showed libertarian candidate, Chase Oliver, polling at 4%, less than what was needed to qualify for Friday’s debate, but enough to force a special election on Dec. 6.
At a rally in Savannah on Saturday, Walker held up a blue football jersey with the words “Team Biden,” saying he had wanted to give it to Warnock after the debate. “This is game day, they tell me,” Walker said. “It’s time for us to stand up, get up and wake up.”
Georgia had been regarded as a Republican stronghold until Warnock and Jon Ossoff flipped both of the state’s Senate seats in January 2021. Two months earlier, Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in three decades.
Both men sought to create distance from their unpopular party leaders. Walker, 60, is endorsed by Donald Trump, but asked about the former president’s false stolen 2020 election claims, he said that both Biden and Warnock won their elections.
Warnock, 53, repeatedly dodged questions as to whether Biden should run for re-election in 2024.
“The people of Georgia hired me to represent them regardless of who’s in the White House,” Warnock said. “They didn’t hire me to be a pundit.”
Some of Walker’s responses may be used by the Warnock campaign. After Warnock touted efforts to cap the cost of insulin, Walker said that the solution was for people to “eat right” and saying that was harder because of rising food prices.
At another point, he said he didn’t support the federal minimum wage. Struggling businesses need to be able to “pay what they are capable of paying. So to mandate a federal fee that they have to pay hourly wage, no I can’t approve that.”
(Updates with Walker rally in 16th paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
A Digital Drive to Reform the $11 Trillion Global Gold Market
Exxon’s Exodus: Employees Have Finally Had Enough of Its Toxic Culture
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
