The Base Stands by Herschel Walker

CARROLLTON, Ga.—If you’re wondering how Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign is doing ahead of tonight’s debate with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, consider the scene at the parking lot of the South Park Health and Wellness Center in this town just west of Atlanta.

As is typical for Walker events, Tuesday’s began with a prayer. Donnie Jones, who manages the South Park property, took the stage to offer a fervent plea for divine support for the Republican Senate candidate.

“May he be a man who fears God and rules in righteousness,” Jones prayed. “May he be like the morning light in the dark world of politics. May he be a man who seeks first the kingdom of God and then the kingdom of man. May Herschel be a man raised up in Georgia for such a time as this, a time when babies are allowed to be slaughtered in the womb for reasons of convenience.”

It was a striking remark, given recent events. Two weeks ago, the mother of one of Walker’s children accused him of encouraging her to get an abortion, then paying for the procedure in 2009. She claims he told her it “wasn’t a good time” for him to have another child—and said the same thing again several years later, when she decided this time to have his child against his wishes. Stacked against Walker’s feeble denials was a heap of pretty convincing physical evidence, including a get-well card signed by Walker and a check bearing his signature from the week of the abortion. The whole saga had caused Walker’s own son Christian to denounce his father’s religion-forward public image, saying he had “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.”