Atlanta-area pastor and social justice advocate Dr. Jamal Bryant delivered a fiery speech to his congregation about Republican Herschel Walker‘s candidacy for U.S. Senate, pulling zero punches.
Walker, who moved back to Georgia after living in Texas for years, is running against Sen. Raphael Warnock in next week’s midterm elections.
Walker has run a campaign full of odd statements and allegations of paying for several abortions.On Sunday, Bryant shared his thoughts about why Walker moved back to Georgia to run for the U.S. Senate, and his speech quickly went viral.
“Ladies and gentlemen, when the Republican Party of Georgia moved Herschel Walker from Texas to Georgia so that he could run for Senate, it’s because change was happening too fast in the post-antebellum South,” Bryant said.
“The state had been flipped blue and there were some principalities that weren’t prepared for a Black man and a Jewish man to go to the Senate at the exact same time,” Bryant continued.
“So they figured they would delude us by picking somebody who they thought would, in fact, represent us better with a football than with a degree in philosophy.”
The 51-year-old HBCU graduate didn’t stop there, going in on Republicans who believed Black people “were so stupid that we would elect the lowest caricature of a stereotypical broken Black man as opposed to somebody who is educated and erudite and focused.”
From there, Bryant went off, telling his congregation, “Y’all ain’t ready for me today.”
“Since Herschel Walker was 16 years old, white men been telling him what to do, telling him what school to go to, where
to live, where to eat, where to buy a house, where to run, where to sit down, where to sleep, where to pay for abortions, where to buy a gun and you think they not gonna tell him how to vote in 2022?”“We don’t need a Walker, we need a runner!”
Throughout his speech, Bryant’s congregation applauded with approval. The pastor continued describing the type of candidate he believes Georgia needs.
“We need somebody who gon’ run and tell the truth about Jan. 6. We need somebody who gon’ run and push for the cancellation of student loan debts. We need somebody who gon’ run and make the former president respond to a subpoena.”
“Georgia, I need you to know the slave Negroes y’all are used to don’t live here no more. We can think for ourselves, function for ourselves, and vote for ourselves.”
“Why? Cause we don’t need a Walker!” Bryant thundered to a cheering crowd.
Bryant’s speech quickly went viral on social media.
Walker is popular among Republicans and white people, but support for the former running back is lacking with Black voters. According to the Sacramento Observer, Warnock holds an 80%-17% lead over Walker among Black voters over 50, and CNN reports Warnock leads Walker 74% to 11% among Black men.