Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jack Bernard
Bernard is a retired corporate executive

For quite some time, I have been saying on various columns that the Democrats are in trouble in November. A just released poll from Emerson College show that my early instincts were spot on in Georgia.

At this point, it’s clear that former UGA football star Herschel Walker will be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senator.  I’ve followed Walker throughout his career. Walker is a native of rural Johnson County, in Wrightsville near my wife’s hometown of Toomsboro. His father worked side by side with my wife’s uncle in the kaolin mines.

But Walker is not very articulate and never accomplished much other than play football. Regardless, 56% of likely GOP primary voters indicate that they will vote for Walker. Former Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black comes in at a lowly 16% with others even further behind.

So, why is the political novice Walker in the lead for the nomination? The answer is simple, he buys into the “Big Lie” that the election was stolen. Walker said “I can guarantee you, Joe Biden didn’t get 50 million people voting for him. But yet people think that he’s won this election” and tweeted that there was “Country wide election fraud.”

The general election race is much closer than the primary. However, Walker is still beating incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, 49% to 45%.

As a former politician, it is clear to me that Warnock’s “nice guy” image as portrayed in his ads will not get him over the finish line. In 2016, at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama famously said to take the high road rather than getting down on the vile level of Trump and the GOP. She must have impressed Clinton. In the last presidential debate, Hillary repeated the line. We all see how that ended up that November.

From what I have seen and read regarding Warnock, he appears to be a fine human being, certainly better than Walker. His positions are mainstream Democrat versus the Squad and the left wing of the party. But, down deep, he’s still a preacher, a man of God. I don’t know if he has the fortitude to truly go after Walker. 

Can Warnock say that he’s a carpetbagger? Someone who said goodbye to his home state long ago, who lived in Texas, just recently coming back to Georgia for his ego and the election? 

Can he bring up the sordid elements of Walker’s past that are unknown by most voters?

The underlying question is “how bad does Warnock want to remain a Senator”? Only Senator Raphael Warnock can answer that question.