Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Brings Campaign to Americus

by Jackson Carlstrom, Editor-in-chief

On the morning of October 21, Republican Senate candidate and former University of Georgia football running back Herschel Walker took his “Unite Georgia Bus Tour” to Americus. I was able to attend the bus tour stop as a member of the press and cover Walker’s speech from up front. While in Americus, he made his case for the US Senate Seat and discussed some of his qualifications and ideas, as well as the ways he believes that current incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock has failed to represent the people of Georgia.

Walker is best known in Georgia for his time with the Georgia Bulldogs, where he won a National Championship in 1980, and he won the Heisman Trophy in 1982. Walker wouldn’t step into Georgia politics until 2014, when he endorsed Republican Senate primary candidate Jack Kingston. Other political endorsements by Walker include Brian Kemp in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. In 2019, President Trump appointed Walker to serve as a co-chair on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. In 2021, Trump encouraged Walker to run as a Republican in the US Senate election in Georgia, automatically establishing him as a frontrunner in the Republican Senate primaries before even announcing his candidacy. Walker announced his run for the Senate seat a few months later in August 2021, and he went on to win the Republican primary election with a landslide 68.18% of the votes. Now, Walker is set to challenge incumbent Senator Warnock for Georgia’s Senate seat in an extremely competitive election.

After his bus pulled into the parking lot, Walker opened the rally by declaring his Christian faith and criticizing the direction his opponent and other Democrats have taken the country. “There’s so many people campaigning, and they’re lying to you. They’re telling you this is the new normal,” Walker said. Walker then spoke to the crowd about his reasons for choosing to run for Senate. “I’m not a politician. I don’t look like one, sound like one, or act like one. But I am a warrior for God. I believe in the Lord Jesus. And when people ask me why I decided to run, I tell them I decided to run because I looked at what was happening in this state and in this country, and I said no, not on my watch.”

Walker then discussed some of the failures and successes he’s had in his life, attributing his successes to the “grace of God,” and how they’ve led him to the position he is in now. “God sometimes has to break you to build you up. And I say that He built me up for a time like this right now. He brought me through the athletic world to do what I’m doing here,” Walker said. “God knew He had to get me ready for a time like this because I’m going up against a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Walker said, referring to Senator Warnock.

Herschel Walker hosts a campaign rally in Americus and speaks to a large crowd.

Photo by Jackson Carlstrom.

Walker then went on to criticize the way Senator Warnock and other Democrats treat the topic of race and accused them of causing division. “They’re trying to separate my family. All they start talking about is white and black. When really, it doesn’t matter the color of our skin, but the content of our character,” Walker said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

Walker then criticized the Democrat’s views regarding police and law enforcement. “We’ve put people in Washington that decided they want to defund the police. That’s a dumb idea,” Walker said. “You cannot defund the police.

But we let them get away with it. Now with the men and women in blue, morale is down and recruitment is down because we let them get away with it. We were afraid that they’d call us names. They’d call us racist . . . Name calling doesn’t hurt my feelings. What hurts my feelings is seeing us not protect our men and women in blue.”

After this, Walker stated that, if elected to office, he’d be completely honest and tell people the truth whether they like it or not, and he’d let his colleagues know when they weren’t doing their jobs. “It is time for us to put leaders in Washington,” Walker said.

Walker then criticized the way Democrats have handled the military. “You hear all these politicians standing in front of you talking about peace through strength. That’s originally from Ronald Reagan by the way,” Walker said. “And yeah, they’re right. But yet, they are bringing wokeness into our military. And let me tell you right now, Russia and Iran aren’t talking about pronouns or feelings. They’re talking about war. Meanwhile, we’re making our military weak. If we don’t protect and get behind our military, we’ll have no peace or strength.”

Walker then turned his attention to the southern border and criticized Senator Warnock for voting against a bill in August to hire more Border Patrol agents. “He voted against 18,000 new agents at the border,” Walker said. And let me tell you about that border. People are coming across that border like they live here. We are a country of immigrants, but we are also a country of laws. Have they forgotten about that?”

Walker then discussed the topic of rising oil and gas prices. “They try to tell us that Putin made these gas prices rise. No he didn’t,” Walker said. Let me tell you what happened. Joe Biden went to office, and he was sort of mad at Trump. And I get it, I get mad at Trump too sometimes. Some of his tweets, I didn’t like them. But you know what, he did make us energy independent. And what Biden decided to do, he went to Washington and he gave up our energy to people that don’t even like us . . . Now he’s blaming Putin. He’s blaming the gas companies. He’s blaming everyone except himself.”

Walker then discussed President Biden’s plans for student loan forgiveness. “Do they know they can’t just spend our money? It’s easy for them to spend our money,” Walker said. “I haven’t signed a note to pay other people’s college loans, have any of you? Yet, now we have to pay other people’s college loans. I had enough problems paying my own debt, and now I’m supposed to pay someone else’s debt?” Walker emphasized that the total amount of student debt in the US is $400 billion dollars, as well as emphasizing Senator Warnock’s support for Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.

After touching on more topics, including crime, environmental issues, and critical race theory, Walker concluded his speech by praising the military for making the US the “greatest country in the world.” He then told the story behind the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key, and how the American flag remained standing throughout the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British during the War of 1812. “Right now, we need those warriors that believe in liberty and freedom to keep that flag standing tall and blowing freely, because I’m telling you right now that if we don’t get it right, we may never have freedom again,” Walker said.

After Walker’s speech, those in attendance got the chance to speak with him in a meet-andgreet, as well as get a photo with him. As of right now, early voting is open, and the official Election Day is Novemebr 8.