Herschel Walker struggles to explain why Trump is not campaigning for him in Georgia Senate runoff

Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker struggled to explain to why former president Donald Trump is not campaigning for him in the final week of Georgia’s Senate runoff race.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked why the former president will not rally with Mr Walker, when former president Barack Obama will campaign with Mr Walker’s Democratic opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock, on Thursday.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that instead, Mr Trump will hold a call with Mr Walker’s supporters in Georgia and will send out fundraising emails.

But Mr Walker said that he still had the support of Mr Trump.

“President Trump has always been in my corner, he still is in my corner,” he said. “And he’s been doing other things for me.”

Mr Walker and Mr Warnock are locked in a runoff election to take place on 6 December. Neither candidate earned a majority of the votes in the general election earlier this month and under Georgia law, the two candidates who receive the most votes will head into a runoff election.

Early voting began in many counties over the weekend and began statewide this week. Mr Obama will return to Georgia to campaign with Mr Warnock on Thursday. Conversely, Governor Brian Kemp has campaigned in earnest for Mr Walker after he overwhelmingly beat Stacey Abrams earlier this month in a 2018 rematch.

But Mr Walker derided Mr Obama’s visit to Atlanta.

“One of the things that they got to remember, President Obama is a celebrity, and that seems to be where Raphael Warnock’s getting his money from, celebrities,” he said.

But Mr Walker has largely campaigned on his status as a hero in Georgia for his time as a running back for the University of Georgia, when he won the Heisman Trophy. Mr Walker later played for the New Jersey Generals, the United States Football League for which Mr Trump owned, before he played for numerous NFL teams including the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants, the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys.