Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Pretends U.S. Is Past Racism In New Ad

Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker released a new campaign ad this week on the promise of a post-racial America that ignores recent racist events.

Walker’s ad features several prominent Black politicians including Vice President Kamala Harris and Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams commenting on racism and politics in America before Walker disses them and discusses bringing the country together.

However, Walker’s critics were quick to point out his own controversial statements concerning racism and politics during his current campaign.

For starters, the former NFL running back told an audience at the Memory Lane Classic Car Museum suggested to an audience that people aren’t racist, just stupid and uninformed, ignoring the litany of racist incidents that have occurred in recent years as well as the words and actions of his endorser, former President Donald Trump.

“You’re not racist unless your 185 years old in today’s world,” Walker said before adding that because of television and the internet, those people aren’t racist, they’re just stupid.

Additionally, during his campaign, Walker said the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who began fighting for the voting and civil rights of Black people as a teenager, wouldn’t have wanted his name on a voting rights bill pushed by Black lawmakers.

Walker also seemed to ignore the racism and death that sparked the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement including the death of Ahmaud Arbery, which took place in the same state where he’s running for office.

These are among the reasons Walker, a Black man, has struggled to gain the support of Black voters. He was also taken to task for calling out Black men for being absentee fathers when Walker himself has multiple children he does not have a relationship with. He has also been violent and aimed a gun at his ex-wife’s head and threatened to kill her.

Polls show Walker has less than 15% of the Black vote in his race with Warnock. Meanwhile, his opponent Raphael Warnock, who is a reverend at the same church as late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. preached at, has 85% of the Black vote according to a Quinnipiac poll.

An unnamed Republican source told NBC News Walker’s ad is aimed at White voters in the Peach State including those that stayed home or voted Democratic in the 2020 Presidential Election which Joe Biden won and the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs, in which Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff defeated former Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.