College and professional football great Herschel Walker plans on running in 2022 for the United States Senate in Georgia, former President Donald Trump said during a radio interview Tuesday.
“He told me he’s going to, and I think he will,” Trump said Tuesday on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.” “I had dinner with him a week ago. He is a great guy. He is a patriot. He’s a very loyal person.”
Walker, 59, was born in Wrightsville, Georgia, and attended the University of Georgia where he won the Heisman Trophy with the Bulldogs football team as a junior in 1982, amassing 5,097 yards as a running back in three seasons, according to the Heisman.com website.
He then spent 13 years in the National Football League playing for Dallas, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and the New York Giants, where he ran for 8,225 yards and scored 61 touchdowns, retiring in 1998, according to pro-football-reference.com.
In recent years, the Republican Walker proved to be a staunch supporter of Trump during his campaign and administration, appearing at several rallies during Trump’s two campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
“They love him in Georgia,” Trump said. “I think he’d win; it would be very hard to beat Herschel.”
While not coming straight out and saying so, Walker, who currently lives in Texas, made a Twitter post June 17 that said, “Georgia on my mind,” with his car displaying a Georgia license plate.
“(My car) is getting ready,” Walker said over the sound of the car’s running engine. “I’m ready and we can run with the big dogs.”
According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday, Trump’s endorsement of Walker could carry enough weight to change the election.
The paper reported that 90% of Republicans in the state strongly support Trump, possibly making Walker a primary force to be reckoned with by potential GOP candidates like Kelly Loeffler, who lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock by around 2% in the January runoff.
In November, Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Trump supported Republican David Perdue by just 50,000 votes.
Republicans lost both seats splitting the Senate 50-50 with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris with the tie-breaking vote.
The newspaper reported that besides moving back home to Georgia, Walker may face other hurdles such as making his positions clear to conservatives, gathering donors, and preparing to have his life scrutinized by the public in a way that is different from being a professional sports star.
It was also reported that Walker's likely opponent Democrat Sen. Warnock, has raised some $6 million in campaign donations for the 2022 race already.
via newsmax