Biden says Democrats will keep Georgia Senate seat
This combination of two separate photos shows Herschel Walker in Atlanta, May 24, 2022, left, and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in Washington, June 22, 2021, right. Walker will represent the Republican Party in its efforts to unseat Warnock in the November 2022 election.
President Biden said Wednesday that he thinks Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock (Ga.) will hold on to his seat, while avoiding giving his reaction to the allegations against GOP candidate Herschel Walker that have roiled the race.
“Negative. And yes,” Biden told reporters when asked about Walker and if Democrats can hold the seat.
The president’s remarks were his first time weighing in on the Georgia race since the claims against Walker become public. The Daily Beast reported last week that Walker conceived a child with a woman he was dating in 2009 and encouraged her to get an abortion.
The outlet then reported that the same woman is also the mother of one of Walker’s children, and The New York Times has since reported that Walker pressed for a second abortion. The allegations follow previous claims of domestic abuse against the former football star.
Walker is a self-described “pro-life” candidate and has denied the allegations.
Georgia is a pivotal state for Democrats in November, and in 2020, Warnock won in a runoff to solidify Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Biden won the Peach State by nearly 12,000 votes, flipping a state that former President Trump won in 2016 by more than 100,000 votes.
Warnock this week narrowly pulled ahead of Walker, according to an Emerson College Polling-The Hill survey. The Democrat garnered 48 percent, compared to Walker’s 46 percent, which is a 4-point improvement for Warnock since August, when he was trailing Walker 44 percent to 46 percent.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will stick with Walker and not pull support for the candidate, despite the allegations. McConnell endorsed Walker in the GOP primary for Georgia Senate, and the candidate has been financially supported by the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican PAC tied to McConnell.