Herschel Walker’s success in his upcoming runoff against incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock could hinge on GOP operatives flocking to Georgia between now and Dec. 6, several Republicans say.
Many are divided over whether that should include former President Donald Trump, whose status as the party’s anchor is under renewed scrutiny amid a tight midterm result for Republicans.
“Since Tuesday night, the No. 1 question I’ve been getting is, ‘Is Trump going to screw it up?’ said Eric Erickson, a prominent Georgia-based conservative radio host who has backed Trump’s 2020 re-election bid.
Although the former president helped recruit Walker, a Georgia football legend and longtime Trump family friend, to the Senate race last year, he was ultimately advised to campaign elsewhere during the general election, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. they know the subject. Some Republicans are still haunted by Trump’s performances in Georgia that led to two 2021 runoffs that ended with Democrats winning both seats and control of the Senate. At the time, then-President Trump filled his campaign speeches with false claims that voter fraud was rampant in Georgia and that Republican officials had worked against him.
Walker’s allies feared that a Trump appearance before the midterm elections would alienate independents and suburban women, critical voting blocs in the battleground state. Those concerns remain as Walker now enters the run-off period after neither he nor Warnock got more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday.
Some Georgia Republicans said Trump’s decision to go ahead with an expected 2024 campaign kickoff next week will distract from what should be a top priority for every Republican right now — helping the party secure a Senate majority . Trump aides sent out invitations late Thursday for a Nov. 15 event at Mar-a-Lago that the former president hopes will soften the momentum behind Ron DeSandis, the popular Florida governor and likely presidential challenger. elections.
In fact, as a debate unfolds over whether Trump should campaign for Walker in the coming days, several Republicans have said they would eagerly welcome an appearance by DeSandis.
“We need every Republican surrogate we can get in the state to put their arms around Herschel. I think that [Virginia Gov. Glenn] Youngkin or DeSantis are better suited to soft Republicans or independents in the suburbs we need to get out,” said Ralph Reed, president of the Faith & Freedom Coalition.
Reid later noted that he believed Trump could also help increase turnout among rural Georgia voters, though he cautioned that he was “not talking about [Walker] campaign.”
“I’ll let them work that out,” he said.
Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise did not respond to a request for comment.
A person close to Walker’s campaign said DeSantis would be “a huge draw if we could get him,” noting that the Florida governor did not campaign for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp despite being just over the border and recently looked for candidates in New York, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Kemp won his own re-election bid Tuesday, defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams for a second term. And the Georgia governor has told allies he wants to help Walker in any way he can, including campaigning for him, according to a person briefed on those conversations.
“DeSantis would be useful. Youngkin would be useful. Kemp will be useful. I think those are the biggest draws in Georgia,” Erickson said.
A Republican with knowledge of DeSantis’ political operation said DeSantis’ interest in campaigning for Walker “depends on what happens with the other two races” for Senate in Arizona and Nevada. Both contests remain too close to call, but if Republicans win either race, control of the upper chamber will fall to Georgia.
“It becomes the center of the political universe at that point,” this person said.
A spokesman for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment about his future travel plans. Although DeSantis has supported Republicans in tough battleground states and campaigned for controversial candidates like Arizona’s Kari Lake and Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano, he made no such effort during the midterms to help Walker amid turmoil headlines about the former Heisman Trophy winner’s troubled past and personal problems.
DeSantis — whose executive residence in Tallahassee is 20 miles from the Florida-Georgia border — also did not participate in the GOP battle in the Peach State two years ago for a pair of Senate runoffs that Republicans ultimately lost.
But a Republican fundraiser close to DeSantis said the Florida governor would likely make the trip across the border if he believes he can help Walker. “He’s a Republican leader and he wants Republicans to take the Senate,” the fundraiser said.
But if DeSantis does show up in Georgia, Trump allies said it would be exponentially more difficult to convince the former president to stay out of the state himself. Much to the dismay of those who want a distraction-free environment for Walker, Trump has continued to vilify DeSandis in recent days, hitting the Florida governor in a statement Thursday that referred to him as an “average Republican governor” who lacked “loyalty and order ” because he refused to rule out a White House bid of his own.
If the Florida Republican were to campaign for Walker, those attacks would likely intensify, a person close to Trump said.
“I imagine [Trump] seeing Ron campaigning for Hershel while being told, “Please stay away.” It would go ballistic,” this person said.
A Trump aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said one idea being floated is for the former president to help Walker financially with a generous check. MAGA Inc.’s super PAC of Trump gave $16.4 million to candidates in the final weeks of the 2022 cycle and contributed more than $100 million to fundraising committees in late September, according to federal election data.
“He’s looking at how he can save the moment, and one of the ways to do that is to help Walker win,” a Trump adviser said, referring to Tuesday’s landslide result for Republicans and Mehmet Oz’s upset loss. in Pennsylvania. whom Trump had endorsed in the Republican Senate primary.
“But I think there’s no way he’s going to announce a campaign for President and not campaign for Walker,” the person added, arguing that Trump’s absence from Georgia as the presumptive front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination will indicate that he is responsible for vulnerable. Republicans – a toxic message to send at the start of a presidential campaign.
Michael Caputo, a 2016 Trump campaign aide who remains close to the former president, said Trump should do as much as possible to raise money for Walker because a presidential announcement would likely trigger an increase in contributions from Democrats in Warnock.
“You have to compensate for that on Walker’s part. From my perspective, the best thing Trump can do is donate and raise a ton of money for Herschel because he can,” Caputo said.
Trump’s political team has held discussions about how best to help Walker since it became clear the Georgia Senate race would move to a runoff, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who both said nothing it has been decided.
“President Trump is 220-16 in declared races, and with President Trump’s endorsement, Herschel Walker, after forcing a runoff, is well positioned to win,” Trump spokesman Taylor Budowitz said in a statement on CNN. .
Much of the sensitivity surrounding a Trump visit to Georgia stems from his campaign appearances for former GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler two years ago, when both Republicans were fighting for survival in their own re-election races.
On the eve of that 2021 runoff election, Trump blasted statewide Republican officials for refusing to challenge the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, falsely claiming he had won the state and promising to return when Kemp was up for re-election. campaign against the GOP incumbent. , which Trump later fulfilled by recruiting Perdue to challenge Kemp in a primary.
Republicans back in Washington watched the rally with trepidation at the time, deeply concerned that Trump’s intense focus on voter fraud and various attacks on Republican officials across the state would dampen voter turnout among his core supporters the next day. . In the end, both Loeffler and Perdue lost their runoffs, ousting Warnock and Jon Ossof in the Senate and giving Democrats a narrow majority.
The episode has come back to haunt Trump as Republicans face a potentially identical scenario to 2021, with control of the Georgia Senate if Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly wins re-election in Arizona and Republican Adam Laxalt flips the incumbent. Acting Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. . Laxalt currently has a lead, while Kelly is more than 100,000 votes ahead of his Republican challenger, according to vote counts as of Friday morning. Less worried that he will send a message that lowers turnout, Republicans are primarily worried this time that Trump would end up being Walker’s trump card in a once-deep-red state that is now turning purple and where the polarizing ex-president might…
