Less Than Four Months Until GOP Primary, #GASEN Infighting and Frustration Boils

The GOP primary for Georgia’s Senate race is less than four months away, but the headaches on the Republican side of the ticket have only just begun as Herschel Walker’s primary rivals continue to ratchet up their attacks and GOP faithful sound off on the Trump-tapped candidate. Meanwhile, Walker “hasn’t shaken questions about his background and temperament (or rid himself of primary opposition).”

Here’s a quick recap of the emerging battle lines in the Republican primary for in #GASEN:

• Gary Black calls out Walker’s checkered history while racking up more local GOP endorsements:
  
  • Black went after Walker’s empty campaign, calling him a “wind-up toy” and saying that Georgians don’t want to vote for a candidate whose “staff that has to get up every morning and put their senator together.”

• Black slammed Walker’s pattern of lying about his past, noting that if he were on Walker’s campaign team, Black “wouldn’t let [Walker] speak to anybody either” after consistently “being caught with false information” as a candidate.
  
• Black also ripped Walker for following racy Instagram accounts featuring adult content from his official campaign account, calling Walker’s behavior “tragic for the state.”
  
• The attacks follow Black’s recent fiery criticism of Walker’s domestic violence history, saying that “Georgians will not tolerate an abuser of women.”

• Latham Saddler’s attacks heat up as he calls Walker’s “no-show, empty chair” Senate campaign an “unmitigated disaster” for Republicans:
  
  • Saddler says Walker’s candidacy is “an unmitigated disaster” for Republicans. Saddler asserted that Walker not only “can’t win against Warnock,” but will drag the entire Republican ticket down with him, saying “we’ll lose the whole thing next year” if Walker becomes the nominee.

• Saddler slams Walker for skipping debates, having no policy, hiding his positions on the issues. Saddler called Walker out for being the only GOP candidate to skip a recent debate in Pickens County, calling him “a no-show and an empty chair” as Georgia voters wonder what he stands for.  
  
• Georgia Republicans “aren’t buying the Herschel thing” as Walker “hides” from voters. Saddler ripped Walker for avoiding voters, calling on him to “answer questions, go through the litmus tests, tell them what you’re all about.”

• Kelvin King warns Walker will be “demolished” and “embarrassed” for his lack of policy and presence in Georgia, rails against “whole lot of baggage” candidate. 

• King said it’s “scary” that Walker has yet to make a single policy speech and warns that candidates who “can’t make a cogent argument” would be “demolished” at the polls. “We’ve got to support the candidate that is accessible, the candidate that can articulate the right messages,” King added. “The candidate that doesn’t have a whole lot of baggage and can be exposed on a grand scale and come crashing down burning.”

• GOP commentators and activists continue “getting nervous” about Walker’s closed-door, “consultant-driven” campaign:
  
  • Republican activists are “stunned” by Walker’s consistent unwillingness to talk about issues with voters on the “closed-door” campaign trail. “[Walker] came in through the back door, gave a short talk about his football career and how he met Trump,” recalls a Cobb County GOP volunteer in a recent AJC story about Walker’s “closed-door” campaign. “He didn’t really say what he stood for, and then he zipped out the back door. I was stunned.”

• Conservative radio host John Fredericks called out Walker’s “consultant-driven” campaign for hiding his positions on the issues, saying of Walker, “I just don’t know how long you can go in a race without taking a position or making a stump speech or laying out your policies.”
  
• Conservative radio host Martha Zoller says she’d vote for Kelvin King if she had to pick today: After asking “how you can support Herschel,” who has only voted once in twenty years, Zoller said she’d vote for Kelvin King over Walker.
  
• DeKalb GOP Chair Mari McCarthy says she thinks Walker is “going to crash and burn.” McCarthy predicted Walker’s campaign is headed for disaster because “you can’t just talk about football all day.”

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