Leading in the polls, Herschel Walker still faces the run of his life.
An architect of critical race theory: ‘We cannot allow all of the lessons from the civil rights movement forward to be packed up and put away for storage’
The older guy sitting next to me, a retired physician and a greeter for the event, had earlier barked at me after learning I was a reporter, “This is a private event. Get out of here.” Now he tells Walker, “I don’t need a photo with you. I’ll wait until you’re a senator.” Head south for five miles until you reach a long drive on the left that rises to a single-story clapboard house amid large pines. This is where Willis and Christine Walker, who met picking cotton, raised their seven children, Willis pulling double shifts in the kaolin plant and Christine working her way up to supervisor at the garment factory. They christened their fifth child Herschel Junior but called him “Bo” at home.
With his world-class speed and amazing strength, Walker outran defenders or ran over them. In his second season he broke the NCAA rushing record for sophomores and brought his team to within 42 seconds of another national title. In his junior year, his third season as an all-American, he won the Heisman Trophy. “He was no longer just an all-American or a superstar — he was a legend,” the narrator gushes in a 2014 ESPN documentary about Walker.
In Georgia, Walker’s popularity seems to have only grown over the years. At a home game reuniting the 1980 Bulldogs team this past fall, the student section took up the chant, “Herschel! Herschel!” — just like old times.of Republican primary voters in Georgia found Herschel Walker far ahead of other candidates, with 66 percent support, compared with single-digit support for other candidates.