Herschel Walker To Seek GOP Senate Nomination In Georgia

ATLANTA — It’s official.

No, this time, it is officially official.

Hershel Walker is running for U.S. Senate in Georgia.

After months of teasing would-be supporters and aspiring candidates not as popular with former President Donald Trump, the erstwhile leader of the Republican Party, Walker filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday afternoon declaring his candidacy.

The latest episode in the "will he or won't he" saga of the former University of Georgia and NFL running back in his road to candidacy was revealed earlier Tuesday when Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein first reported that Walker had registered to vote just about a week prior using a Buckhead address.

“He listed his residence as the Buckhead home owned by his wife, Julie Blanchard, one of multiple properties he maintains in the state,” Bluestein wrote.

Now the recently relocated Texas resident — who only need show residency in the state where he's running before filing as a candidate — will enter the race for the Georgia Republican nomination that now includes state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, U.S. Air Force Academy grad Kelvin King and Navy veteran Lathan Saddler.

Backed by the support of Trump, a long-time friend and former employer — he owned the USFL pro football New Jersey Generals that drafted Walker from UGA — Walker can cash in on the past president's loyal following.

Trump and his fellow Republicans have been looking for a popular, charismatic conservative to win back the Georgia senate seat that Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church, won in a special January runoff election. That win, coupled with a second January runoff election loss to Sen. Jon Ossoff and the state flipping blue for the presidential election just months before, has Republicans feeling they have a lot to win back in Georgia.

Trump encouraged a run at the Senate as early as last year and said in late June that Walker was preparing to enter the race.

For his part, Walker tweeted a video earlier that month that fed speculation he would run. Titled “Georgia on mind," the recording shows him revving the engine of a car with a Georgia license plate. “I'm getting ready,” he says. "And we can run with the big dogs.”

Walker will have some hurdles to overcome if he wants to win the GOP nomination and face Warnock in 2022.

The Associated Press has reported that Walker's ex-wife and her sister reported that he threatened his ex-wife's life, that Walker exaggerated claims about private-sector success and that he often fought with business associates.

Recently, state election officials opened an investigation into Blanchard's residency after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that records show she voted in Georgia despite living in Texas. A case sheet obtained by the AP shows the Secretary of State’s Office opened the investigation into Blanchard on Aug. 10.

Walker is among Trump supporters who continue to repeat the president's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him through fraud. Election officials nationwide found no widespread fraud.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.