The senatorial election of 2022 in Georgia between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock will be studied by analysts, pundits, and politicos for years to come. It was an amazing race, and believe it or not, race was an issue. It was one of the most expensive campaigns ever. Warnock was the top money-raiser. He raised more money than any other federal candidate, with $150.5 million. He raised twice the amount of his football great running back opponent. Warnock $5l.9 million to Walker $20. 8 million. TV advertising spending was topped over $80 million.
Warnock won the race by 90,000 votes with a great turnout. There are a lot of factors in this race. Walker ran as a Trump devotee. The Republicans have a strategy of selecting popular Black candidates and running them in the Republican fashion with a boatload of money. It is a failing strategy. If you question the sense, ask Mayor Richard Irvin (Aurora), who ran for Illinois Governor’s seat with the backing of $50 million from Ken Griffin.
Republican Blackface…
The Republicans are playing a game of “blackface.” They are view the Black population as a monolith and that a Republican Black Face is magical for the voter because you see somebody that looks like me. This might be called the Republican diversity plan. It fails by way of the campaign tactics or by the candidate’s failure to relate to the Black community. The issue becomes Black “authenticity” as well as political posture.
In the case of Richard Irvin, he ran a terrible campaign, with a constant diet of TV commercials and a no-show in Chicago Black or diverse communities. His commercials were an attack, attack, and attack. It felt like he would knock on your door and shoot you.
The character was a vital issue with Georgia’s great football star. Herschel Walker was a misfit intellectually for the race. A sports figure who was tall, dark, and handsome was more suited to a white populus. Although he talked about the sports win, the vampires, and the werewolves, he was overwhelmingly unimpressive as his life experience reflected his stance on abortion with women. Someone should have told him about background checks in your personal life as a candidate. The coldest, cruelest action was to note that he dropped a girlfriend off for an abortion as he waited in the parking lot. Really now. He misspoke about the election vs. an erection. How about that for confusion? His close friendship with Donald Trump was a double edge sword. The popularity was in place, but not the candidate.
The Black electorate is amongst the most sophisticated in the country, and the white pundits too often misread. There is a qualitative difference between Walker and Warnock. Warnock is a degreed Morehouse Man, a theological student in New York under the professorship of theorist for Black liberation philosophy, James Cone. He went to Harlem, to Union Theological Seminar, and served as Assistant Pastor of Abyssinian Church. He follows the direct path of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becoming the fifth and youngest minister of King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. Warnock is the first-ever Black Senator of Georgia. He won in a heavily Republican state. He is of Black pedigree, and Black voters recognize and readily know the cultural/political difference between the preacher and the football player. Warnock’s church member was the late Congressman John Lewis. Warnock is an activist rooted in the civil rights tradition. He walks into the Senate strong and with a powerful purpose.
And, whereas the race was tough and competitive, I knew deep in my heart that Warnock would win because he was running the real race from Georgia, the State of King. History was made.
