National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) will travel to Georgia on Tuesday to demonstrate support for Herschel Walker, days after news reports in which a former girlfriend accused the Senate candidate of paying for one abortion and urging a second.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is also making the trip, as the party continues to treat the Georgia contest as a marquee race that could help determine control of the Senate in 2023.
“The Democrats want to destroy this country, and they will destroy anyone who gets in their way. Today, it’s Herschel Walker, but tomorrow it’s the American people,” Scott said in a statement to The Washington Post announcing his trip. “I’m on Herschel’s team — they picked the wrong Georgian to mess with. I’m proud to stand with Herschel Walker and make sure Georgians know that he will always fight to protect them from the forces trying to destroy Georgia values.”
The mother of one of Walker’s children has said he ended a relationship with her in 2011 after she refused to have an abortion as she had done two years earlier, according to an account in the New York Times published Friday. The same woman previously told the Daily Beast that Walker paid for the first abortion, the report said. The Daily Beast reported on the woman’s account on Monday.
The Washington Post has not independently confirmed the accounts. Walker has denied both claims, saying he never had knowledge of any abortions by former partners. Walker, who says he has four children by four different women, is running for office on a platform that opposes abortion in all cases, without exception for rape or incest.
Cotton spokeswoman Caroline Tabler said the senator also wants to show his support for Walker. “He believes Herschel will be a champion for Georgia who will vote to keep violent criminals in jail, for lower gas prices, and to stop Joe Biden’s inflationary policies,” she said.
Republicans have shown no signs of backing away from the race, with multiple staffers from the NRSC planning to travel to the state in the coming weeks. Part of a recent cut in NRSC advertising spending in the New Hampshire Senate race, which was announced Friday, is expected to be reallocated to Georgia, according to a person familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity to describe strategy.
Walker and Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) are scheduled to meet Friday for their first televised debate.