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Walker vs Warnock in Debate, GA Senate Race

Walker vs Warnock in Debate, GA Senate Race

Newslooks- SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, will meet Friday night for their only debate in Georgia’s marquee Senate contest, just days before in-person early voting begins.

The 60-minute session, which will take place before a live audience, comes in the wake of reports that Walker paid for a girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009 before later fathering a child with her. Additionally, the matchup could force both men to answer other attacks — personal and political — that have flooded voters’ television screens and social media feeds for months.

FILE – Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker speaks during a campaign stop at Battle Lumber Co., Oct. 6, 2022, in Wadley, Ga. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)

“Raphael Warnock will have to answer why he has voted 96% of the time with (President) Joe Biden, giving us record-high inflation, all while doubling his own income,” Walker aide Will Kiley said, previewing now-familiar assertions from Republicans.

Warnock’s campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, wrote in a memo that the debate will highlight Walker’s “pattern of lies, disturbing behavior, and positions” that “prove he is not ready to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate.” Fulks added, however, that Warnock would highlight his nearly two years in the Senate as proof he “will work with anyone to help the people of our state.”

FILE – Sen. Raphael Warnock stands with his children, Caleb and Chloe, and his mother, Verlene Warnock, before unveiling a sign designating a street as Honorary Raphael Warnock Way in the Senator’s hometown of Savannah, Ga., Oct. 6, 2022. Warnock, a freshman Democrat, is up for reelection in November in a pivotal race against Republican and former football star Herschel Walker. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum, File)

Those previews track ground that Warnock, the 53-year-old pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Walker, the 60-year-old former college and professional football star, have staked out in a midterm election that will help determine which party controls the Senate for the final two years of Biden’s term.

Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff won their Senate seats in a January 2021 special election two months after Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. That was the first time in two decades Democrats won federal elections in the historically-conservative state, raising questions about whether Warnock can replicate his victory in a midterm election, especially with Biden’s popularity down among Georgia voters.

FILE – Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker campaigns Sept. 7, 2021, in Emerson, Georgia, north of Atlanta. (AP Photos/Bill Barrow, File)

Walker has seized on that landscape, caricaturing Warnock as a rubber-stamp for the administration. Warnock’s answer has been to emphasize legislative accomplishments in Washington, with a focus on provisions he sponsored capping insulin and other health care costs for Medicare recipients, Democrats’ extension of the child tax credit and infrastructure provisions that Warnock shepherded with Republican colleagues.

A major variable in the debate is how aggressively Warnock chooses to directly attack Walker on various allegations and disclosures that have surfaced throughout the campaign. The senator typically has defaulted to his broad assertion that Walker is ill-prepared for office. But debate moderators could inject more details of Walker’s past.

Recent reporting by The Daily Beast disclosed records of an abortion receipt and a subsequent personal check from Walker to a woman who said the celebrity football icon paid for her abortion when they were dating. Walker, who as a candidate backs an outright national ban on abortion, continues to deny the reports, even after the woman identified herself as the mother of one of his four children.

FILE – Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as she testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, May 10, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Warnock, a freshman Democrat, is up for reelection in November in a pivotal race against Republican and former football star Herschel Walker. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP, File)

Other reports, including from The Associated Press, have detailed how Walker has exaggerated his academic achievements, business success and his philanthropic activities, as well as accusations that he threatened the life of his ex-wife that go beyond details Walker himself acknowledged in a 2008 memoir and subsequent media interviews. Walker also acknowledged three of his children publicly for the first time only after earlier Daily Beast reporting. Before his Senate bid, he’d spoken publicly only of Christian Walker, his adult son by his first wife.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., center, who chairs Republicans’ Senate campaign arm, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., join Georgia Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker during a campaign stop on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, in Carrollton, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)

Walker, as is typical of challengers battling incumbents, has proved much more eager to go after Warnock directly. Citing Warnock’s Senate financial disclosures, Walker blasts Warnock as using the Senate to get rich. Warnock reported income from a book deal after his Senate election. He also reports a monthly housing allowance from Ebenezer Baptist Church in excess of $7,000 — an arrangement that allows Warnock to continue receiving a considerable annual sum from the church for his role as senior pastor without violating federal ethics rules capping senators’ outside income.

Democratic U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock speaks to the Democratic Party of Georgia state convention on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022 in Columbus, Ga. Warnock is seeking a full six-year term in November, with Republican Herschel Walker as his top opponent. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

National Republicans, meanwhile, have recently aired ads highlighting Warnock’s personal life. One ad references a March 2020 incident in which Warnock’s then-wife, Oulèye Ndoye, told police he ran over her foot with his vehicle. Police records state that officers found no evidence that Warnock did so. The couple divorced before Warnock’s election to the Senate; they share two young children.

Walker himself has avoided attacks on Warnock’s family life, though he campaigned earlier this week with Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm that paid for some of those ads.

FILE – Herschel Walker speaks after his Republican Primary wins on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta. Walker will represent the Republican Party in its efforts to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The Savannah debate, coming days before Monday’s start of early in-person voting, is the two rivals’ only meeting because Walker declined to accept the three fall debates typical in Georgia campaigns. Warnock accepted that slate of proposed debates in June, only to have Walker balk and counter with Friday’s debate. The Friday debate will not include Libertarian Chase Oliver, who did not meet organizers’ polling threshold.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Just one of those original three debates is still scheduled: Warnock will meet Oliver in a Sunday session sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. In that debate, Walker will be represented by an empty podium because he declined the invitation.

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