Herschel Walker’s presence in the Senate, if elected on Dec. 6, will mean the difference for Republicans between being able to check action by the Democrats versus not being able to stop them from passing controversial measures.
Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who warmed up a Republican crowd of about 100 people for Walker in Dalton on Nov. 30, detailed how that will work.
If Walker wins, he said, the Republicans and Democrats will have equal membership on Senate committees such as judiciary, appropriations, and finance, with 10 members apiece.
“That means without a Republican, they can’t do much of anything in the Senate. It means they can’t issue subpoenas and engage in kangaroo-court investigations. It means they can’t appoint radical liberals to the court.
“But if we come up short here, every one of those committees goes to 11–9, every one of them, and they can ram through anything they want.”
Reed was the latest prominent Republican to campaign with Walker as various state and national GOP notables have done, including Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Rick Scott (R-Fla.)
His opponent, the incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, has a big name coming in on Dec. 1.
Former President Barack Obama will appear at a rally in Atlanta. He’s the only national Democrat who has campaigned in-state for Warnock.
Walker and the GOP have sought to tie Warnock closely to President Joe Biden who has low popularity ratings.
By the end of the day on Nov. 30, almost 834,000 of Georgia’s 7,006,836 active voters had cast ballots, either through early voting or by returning absentee ballots, nearly 12 percent of all active voters, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.
Speaking to The Epoch Times afterward, Reed expressed confidence that Walker could win the Senate runoff next week. Neither he nor Warnock reached 50 percent of the popular vote in the Nov. 8 general election.
He ticked off several points regarding how Walker might close the 38,000-vote gap from the general election when Warnock got 49.4 percent of the vote and Walker got 48.5 percent.
Reed said a million Republicans who voted in both the 2022 primary and general elections hadn’t yet voted in the runoff, compared to half a million Democrats. If the Republicans turn out, that bodes well for Walker.
In the 2021 Senate runoffs, David Perdue lost to Jon Ossoff by about 50,000 votes, and Kelly Loeffler lost to Warnock by about 100,000 votes, Reed said. But between 125,000 and 150,000 voters in three heavily Republican Congressional districts alone did not return to the polls for that runoff amid the controversy over the 2020 election results.
“Two years ago, Republicans were divided and fighting among themselves,” Reed said. “And this time, they’re totally united with Brian Kemp and Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell all rowing in the same direction to get Herschel across the finish line. We’re not fighting. We’re all united.”
Reed added Walker lagged behind the rest of the GOP statewide candidates by 150,000 to 200,000 votes as numerous Republican voters split their ticket to cross over and vote for Warnock. “Published polling indicates that a healthy chunk of Kemp-Warnock voters in November are expected to flip (back) to Herschel in the runoff.”
Published polling also suggests Libertarian voters who voted for Chase Oliver—he received 81,365 votes—will break two to one for Walker should they return for the runoff. Depending on how many return, this could yield a 20,000 to 25,000-vote gain for Walker, Reed said.
In addition, he said, Walker’s campaign has undertaken significant statewide ad buys on minority-audience radio stations to reach black and Hispanic voters.
Reed’s group, a nonprofit, is undertaking to knock on 400,000 doors, make 1 million get-out-the-vote calls, and send voter guides to 5000 churches. Reed termed this voter education and GOTV aimed at evangelical and Christian voters. As a charity, they can endorse candidates but choose not to, he said. “We do not advocate for specific candidates.”
Reed noted in his speech that he’d gone to the University of Georgia with Walker. “I used to ride the bus with him. But I would never even talk to him. He was Herschel Walker. He was like a demigod to me.”
