by Bronson Winslow
Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker trails incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia by double digits amidst a scandal over him allegedly paying for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, per a new poll released on Wednesday.
Walker polled 38% support compared to 50% for Warnock, according to SurveyUSA, which conducted the poll for 11Alive News in Atlanta. Should Warnock gain even one vote more than 50% in November’s election, it would be enough to beat Walker outright and avoid a runoff election against him later in the year.
Walker has faced heavy scrutiny this week after The Daily Beast published a story about a woman who claims that Walker persuaded her to abort a pregnancy they conceived in 2009. During the ongoing campaign, Walker has called himself “100% pro-life” with no exceptions.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4, with The Beast’s story being published on Oct. 3.
The story referred to a card sent to the woman that Walker had allegedly signed and a $575 receipt from the abortion clinic, which was not published. The Beast later reported that Walker had fathered a child with the woman, though has Walker denied both allegations.
“This is a flat-out lie – and I deny this in the strongest possible terms,” wrote Walker on Twitter, calling the story the “latest Democrat attack.” He accused the story’s author, Roger Sollenberger, of having “obsessively attacked my family.”
Regarding the latest Democrat attack: pic.twitter.com/OjrDcGak95
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) October 3, 2022
Walker has been defended by Republicans. Former President Donald Trump, writing on Truth Social, claimed that Walker was being “slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media, and obviously, the Democrats.”
However, Walker’s son, Christian, who is a conservative social media personality, has claimed that the allegations against his father are true and criticized him for running for the Senate. “He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public,” Christian wrote on Twitter, adding that “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us.”
Walker has previously faced questions about his past including suggestions that he was an “absentee father” to his children and that, during his divorce, he pointed a gun at his ex-wife’s head and said “I’m going to blow your f’ing brains out.”
The poll surveyed 1,076 likely voters in Georgia and had a margin of error of 3.7%. Registered Republicans and Democrats comprised 40% of respondents, each, while the remainder were independents.
An average of recent polls by RealClearPolitics puts Warnock 3.8% ahead of Walker, with the race heading to a runoff. FiveThirtyEight, a polling aggregator, gives SurveyUSA’s poll a grade of “A” for reliability.
Walker and Warnock will participate in a head-to-head debate on Oct. 14, hosted by WSAV-TV. Neither campaign immediately responded to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Bronson Winslow is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Herschel Walker” by Herschel Walker.
Don’t believe it.
Can’t believe 11 alive? Really! Polls got Walker up by 6 points and raising more money.