Incumbent U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock leads Republican challenger Herschel Walker after allegations that the anti-abortion Walker urged a former partner to obtain an abortion and paid for her procedure.
Warnock’s 47% to 44% lead is within the InsiderAdvantage/Fox 5 poll’s 4.2% margin of error. The poll was taken Tuesday night after a Daily Beast report Monday outlining the abortion accusation and after Walker’s own son, Christian Walker, took to Twitter with harsh allegations.
A previous poll by the same outlet put Warnock at the same 47% support, but support for Walker has since dropped, meaning the latest controversy facing the Republican may be costing him support, but aren’t necessarily boosting voting preferences for the Democrat.
The two candidates are set to square off in a debate Oct. 14, which will be televised on Nexstar stations in Savannah, Columbus and August and Fox 5 in Atlanta. The abortion scandal is likely to be a key issue in that forum.
The Daily Beast report cites a woman who said Walker urged her to have an abortion in 2009 after he got her pregnant. The Daily Beast article didn’t name the woman to protect her identity, but said the information was verified through a friend who said she accompanied the woman to her abortion procedure.
The report also included a “get well” card Walker signed and said the woman provided a receipt from the abortion clinic and a photo of Walker’s $700 check reimbursing her for the cost.
Southeast Politics has not independently verified The Daily Beast report.
Walker denies the allegation.
His son took to Twitter Tuesday to call his dad out, saying he would “appreciate if” his father “stopped lying and making a mockery of us.”
“You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” the 23-year-old wrote.
Christian Walker’s tweet storm claimed “every member” of Walker’s family “asked him not to run for office” because they all “knew (some of) his past.”
“He decided too give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it,” Christian Walker continued.
Herschel Walker, who has backing from former President Donald Trump, has been a vocal opponent of abortion, favoring bans without exceptions for rape or incest, and has criticized absentee fathers, a critique that appears hollow based on his son’s accusations of abuse.
Earlier reporting from The Daily Beast claimed Walker had three additional children. Walker later confirmed he indeed had four children.
The race between Warnock and Walker is being watched nationally as both Democrats and Republicans fight to wrest control over the now-tied U.S. Senate. Warnock’s 2021 election was one of two Georgia Senate races that delivered a tie in the chamber to Democrats, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote.
