Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has emerged as a key surrogate for Georgia’s Herschel Walker as the Republican endures a series of scandals in the final weeks of his Senate campaign.
Walker, who has campaigned on a staunchly anti-abortion platform, is facing allegations, reported by the Daily Beast earlier this month, that he paid a former girlfriend for an abortion. The accusation was magnified Wednesday after a second woman came forward alleging that Walker had pressured her to end her pregnancy.
The claims, which Walker has vehemently denied, are just the latest in a series of controversies for the former NFL running back, whose ex-wife has accused him of domestic abuse. Walker’s own son Christian came forward this month to denounce his father and his “atrocious” behavior.
SCANDALS FORCE HERSCHEL WALKER TO PLAY DEFENSE IN CAMPAIGN’S FINAL WEEKS
National Republicans have rallied to Walker’s side in the aftermath, decrying the accusations as part of a Democratic hit job.
“This is just Textbook 101 for the Democrats,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told radio host Hugh Hewitt this month. “It’s just lie, cheat, and smear. That’s what the Democrats do.”
Senators like Scott and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) have traveled to Georgia in recent weeks to stump for Walker. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will also be holding a campaign event with him Thursday evening in Monroe.
But none of Walker’s Republican backers have been so prominent as Graham, who has been a regular on Walker’s “Unite Georgia” bus tour.
When the second woman came forward accusing Walker of aiding in her abortion, Graham was by his side, literally, to dismiss the allegation as a politically timed bombshell.
“We’ve seen this movie before, and we’re not going to put up with it,” Graham said at a campaign stop on Wednesday.
The South Carolina senator compared the allegations against Walker to those leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings and said that Walker, like Kavanaugh, would ultimately overcome them.
Graham, seated on-camera next to Walker, repeated that line during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday night.
“If you’re a conservative, they don’t give a damn about the truth,” said Graham, sporting a “Run, Herschel, Run” pin. “They’re trying to destroy his life 13 days before the election. They did the same thing to Kavanaugh.”
“They’re scared to death of Herschel Walker because if Herschel Walker becomes a Republican, maybe every other young child in America of color might want to be a Republican,” Graham added.
The accusations have forced Walker to play defense in the homestretch of the campaign, muddling his efforts to tie his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, to rampant inflation and crime.
But they don’t appear to be tanking Walker’s prospects in a Senate race that could very well determine control of the Senate.
Although his approval ratings dipped after the first woman came forward to allege Walker paid for an abortion, they have apparently rebounded, and the race today is a statistical dead heat. It remains to be seen whether the latest accusations will move the needle in polling.
Graham’s full-throated defense of Walker mirrors the senator’s denunciation of Democrats in 2018 after Christine Blasey Ford, a former classmate, accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, a claim Kavanaugh denied.
Graham’s blistering remarks during those confirmation hearings are credited with galvanizing Republicans to stick with Kavanaugh and confirm him on a party-line vote.
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020,” Graham angrily said of Democrats at the time. “To my Republican colleagues, if you vote ‘no,’ you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing that I have seen in my time in politics.”
Graham’s physical proximity to Georgia may be a factor in his decision to campaign so heavily for Walker.
“I live 40 miles over those hills there,” the South Carolina Republican said on Wednesday in Dillard, Georgia, a city of 337 people. “I know Rabun County and Dillard really well. People here are not going to tolerate” the Democratic attacks.
But his pugilistic persona is also part of a larger transformation the senator, once known as a collegial centrist open to working with Democrats, underwent during the Trump years.
“Lindsey Graham had a front-row seat to character assassination being used as a political weapon with Kavanaugh and he clearly sees that being used today at the 11th hour with Herschel,” a Republican strategist involved in Senate races told the Washington Examiner. “That does not sit well with him. And therefore, as a senator from a neighboring state, he sees it as his obligation to get involved and fight back against that as he did with Kavanaugh.”
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Graham continued his swing through Georgia on Thursday, headlining a rally for Walker in which he predicted Warnock, who won a runoff last year to finish out the term of then-Sen. Johnny Isakson, would be defeated on Nov. 8.
“You know how this movie’s going to end when it comes to Herschel Walker? He’s going to stand his ground, the people of Georgia are going to have his back, and Herschel Walker is going to the United States Senate.”
Marisa Schultz contributed to this story.
