Republican Senate nominee in Georgia Herschel Walker called himself “a warrior for God” on Saturday in the wake of former President Barack Obama’s criticism of him.
It came after the first-time U.S. Senate hopeful drew fire a day earlier from the former Democrat commander-in-chief, who said the former football player is “a celebrity who wants to be a politician.”
At a Democrat campaign event in College Park, Georgia, to rally support for the Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, Obama knocked both Walker and his GOP successor.
“Herschel Walker was a heck of a football player, one of the best running backs of all time,” Obama said at the Gateway Center Arena.
“Does that make him the best person to represent you in the United States Senate?” the former president asked. “We’ve seen how that goes,” he continued, likely in reference to Trump, who had been a well-known TV celebrity and New York property tycoon long before he became the 45th U.S. president.
Walker hit back. “President Obama was here last night. He said I’m a celebrity. He got that one wrong, didn’t he?” reported The Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I’m not a celebrity, I’m a warrior for God.”
Walker moved on by arguing that Obama “got with the wrong horse” by championing Warnock, given the former president did not win the Peach State in either 2008 or 2016.
“He got something else wrong, too. Remember two years ago, he told us to vote for Joe Biden, didn’t he?” Walker said. “He’s lost twice to Georgia already, hasn’t he. So I think he probably needs to sit this one out.”
“You know [Warnock] can’t do the job, and it’s time for him to leave,” the candidate added.
Backed by top Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump, the former NFL running back is challenging incumbent Warnock on Nov. 8 to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. As the fast-approaching mid-term elections will largely impact the remaining presidency of President Joe Biden, winning Georgia’s Senate contest remains pivotal to see whether the Republican Party will be able to flip control of the Senate.
Recent polling suggests Warnock and Walker currently remain in a neck-and-neck battle for the state’s Senate seat.
Georgia, being the home to several key races, has seen almost double the number of people vote on the first day of early voting earlier this month compared to in 2018, according to state election officials. The turnout is even comparable to that of the first early voting day of the 2020 presidential election, despite figures being historically much higher in presidential elections.
