Walker Faces Rocky First Few Days in Chaotic #GASEN Primary

Potential violation of federal election law, no-show to a major GOP event, called out for false statements about 2020 election, and “deep financial ties” to Marjorie Taylor Greene exposed

It hasn’t even been a week since Herschel Walker entered the chaotic GOP primary for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat — but the Trump-tapped candidate’s campaign is off to a rocky start with potential FEC violations, angry conservatives after his “notable no-show” at a marquee GOP event, false statements about the 2020 election, and “deep financial ties” to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Here’s the latest:

• “What [Walker’s] doing is, he’s breaking the law.” On Friday, 11Alive reported that Herschel Walker’s political campaign potentially “violated the law by spending money as a political candidate before officially declaring his candidacy.” A formal complaint has been filed with the FEC requesting a swift investigation into violations by Walker and his campaign in the leadup to his Senate entrance. The complaint is “legitimate” and “has merit,” says attorney Marc Hershovitz, who has done campaign finance work on behalf of candidates in both parties. “It looks like what (Walker) was doing was teasing things along in order to have a big reveal. And that’s all nice and cute. But what he’s doing is, he’s breaking the law.”

• “Where was Herschel? Where’s Herschel?” Walker skipped his first marquee GOP event as a Republican candidate, and conservatives are livid. Republican Senate candidates flocked to the GOP’s annual 8th district Fish Fry event this weekend in Perry, Georgia — with one notable exception. Tim Bryant, an Athens-based conservative commentator and WGAU radio host, took aim at Walker’s “handlers” for allowing him to skip his first marquee event as an official candidate: “At some point, you’ve got to put him out there. I mean, we’re closing in on a week now since the announcement and all we have is a video. This dopey YouTube video that’s on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram or whatever. At some point, I don’t know, stick your head out there and then get in the game.”

• CNN Fact Check: “Walker is a serial promoter of false 2020 conspiracy theories.” Over the weekend, CNN released a detailed report on Walker’s false and defamatory statements about the 2020 election in the leadup to and during the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capitol. Among Walker’s long list of debunked claims: false charges of mass fraud, baseless calls to conduct a presidential re-vote in several states, and conspiracy theories about altered votes, Dominion voting machines, Georgia’s ballots, and the motivations of Capitol rioters. 

• Walker’s campaign has “deep financial ties” to controversial Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. As OpenSecrets reports, Walker and Greene share the same treasurer for their principal campaign and fundraising committees. Greene has faced intense blowback in Georgia and among national GOP leaders for making anti-semitic comments that trivialized the Holocaust, berating school shooting survivors, and spreading conspiracy theories.

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