When it comes to fundraising for his Georgia Senate campaign, Republican candidate Herschel Walker is off to a very good start.
In his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November's midterm elections, the former professional and college football star told Fox News on Wednesday that his campaign had raised nearly $10 million from late August through the end of last year.
During the October-December fourth fundraising quarter, Walker's campaign also reported $5.4 million in contributions from 44,364 individual donors from across all 50 states.
"As we travel all over the Peach State, we are meeting thousands of hardworking Georgians who are fed up with the direction our country is headed," Walker said in a statement. "Though I have been blessed with many amazing opportunities, running for U.S. Senate to represent my home state is the greatest honor and privilege of my life."
Considered the obvious front-runner in the GOP primary due to his high name recognition and the endorsement he received from former President Donald Trump, recent polling indicates Walker holds a comfortable lead over his Republican rivals.
Walker's critics note that, as a first-time candidate, he is untested under pressure on the campaign trail and has not made his position clear on some issues. He also comes with potential political baggage that could be used against him by his opponents, including his struggle with the mental illness dissociative identity disorder and accusations of domestic violence by his ex-wife.
Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise claimed that "this massive fundraising haul, likely the largest in the country for a non-incumbent, shows that Georgia Republicans are clearly united behind Herschel Walker and are ready to take on Sen. Warnock."
Warnock won his seat by a razor-thin margin last year when he defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019.
Defeating Warnock looks to be a challenge, as Georgia’s first Black senator has set fundraising records during his time in office.
The pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, Warnock has yet to file his fourth quarter fundraising numbers, but he brought in $9.5 million during the July-September third quarter of fundraising and reported more than $17.2 million at the beginning of October, according to Fox.
Going into the November midterms, the GOP is defending 20 of the 34 Senate seats up for election, including five open seats, and seeks to win back the Senate majority it lost in January 2021.
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