Georgia Senate showdown: Herschel Walker hauls over $6 million the past three months

FIRST ON FOX: The campaign of Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker of Georgia said that it and its allied committees hauled in nearly $6.2 million during the April-June second quarter of 2022 fundraising.

Walker’s team, in sharing their fundraising figures first with Fox News and Axios, highlighted that the campaign had nearly $7 million cash on hand in their coffers as of the end of June. 

The college and pro-football legend is challenging first-term Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a crucial Senate race in a key general election battleground state that could determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections.

The campaign highlighted that Walker has raked in more than $20 million since launching his Senate bid 11 months ago, and that he has received contributions from nearly 70,000 donors from all 50 states the past three months.

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"Team Herschel and I are so grateful for the incredible outpouring of support we've received from people who truly believe in our campaign and what we will deliver for Georgia," Walker said in a statement. "We are so thankful for every single voter, door knocker, volunteer, and donor who has worked with our campaign to defeat Raphael Warnock."

Walker argued that "Sen. Warnock has done more for Joe Biden than Georgia – and that’s why we’ve received donations from Americans in every state. Georgia deserves a Senator that will work for them – not Washington insiders." 

Walker’s second quarter haul is up from the $5.3 million he brought in from January through March. Warnock, a ferocious fundraiser who hauled a massive $13.6 million during the first quarter, has yet to announce his second quarter figures. Federal candidates have until Friday to report their fundraising with the Federal Election Commission.

Walker, who won a Heisman Trophy and helped steer the University of Georgia to a college football national championship four decades ago, jumped into the GOP race to face off against Warnock last year after months of support and encouragement to run for the Senate by former President Donald Trump, his longtime friend.

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Thanks to his legendary status among many in Georgia and his immense, favorable, name recognition in the Peach State, Walker instantly became the overwhelming front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination and basically ignored the field of lesser-known primary rivals, declining to take part in debates as he focused his campaign on Warnock. Walker trounced his rivals in the state’s May 24 primary. 

Since the primary, Walker has been put in an unfavorable spotlight over what Warnock’s campaign argues are a series of "bizarre or false statements" made by GOP challenger.

Walker has also been dinged by numerous reports that he overinflated the success of his businesses and has been playing defense regarding a number of personal controversies — from allegations of past neglect of children he fathered out of wedlock to claims by his ex-wife of violent behavior towards her.

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Republicans see Warnock — the senior pastor at Atlanta's famed Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, and who defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler by a razor-thin margin to capture the seat a year and a half ago — as very vulnerable as he runs for re-election.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted June 23-27 suggested Warnock holding a 10-point lead over Walker. But an East Carolina University survey conducted in early June pointed to a dead heat between the two candidates.