Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, referred to himself as a “warrior for God” early in his remarks during a Statesboro campaign stop Friday morning. Before he was done speaking, he had called the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and a “trickster.”

It’s Warnock who is a Baptist minister. But Walker, the record-setting University of Georgia football player who won the 1982 Heisman Trophy and went on to play professionally first in the USFL and then in the NFL, acknowledges past struggles, such as with mental illness, as a redemption story.

The rally in front of Anderson’s General Store on U.S. Highway 80 East was announced for 9:30 a.m. By the time the big, red bus with Walker’s image on the side rolled up nearly an hour later, the crowd had grown to 200 to 250 people, many with signs or shirts touting support for Walker this year and some also with hats favoring a return of Donald Trump as president in 2024.

Walker arrived on stage wearing a “Folds of Honor” T-shirt, representing an organization that awards scholarships to spouses and children of military personnel who die or become disabled while on duty. He began with some thanks, first thanking Jesus, as he said he always does.

“I’m also going to tell you I’m going to win this election, and tell you the reason why, because as I stand here today you can see that I don’t look like a politician, do I? I don’t sound like a politician, do I? and because I’m not a politician. I am that warrior for God that he’s prepared me for this moment right now.”

Noting that he grew up in Wrightsville, a “little town not far from here,” Walker said his mother had called him “big-boned,” which meant he “was fat” as a child. He noted that he also had at that time a speech impediment, and said there were four years in school when he didn’t really speak in class or go out at recess because he was getting “beat up all the time,” but then started working out.

“But God was getting me ready,” Walker said.

That, he said, led to his scholarship to the University of Georgia, the Heisman Trophy and eventually even a spot on the 1992 U.S. Olympic bobsled team.

“But God knew then. He said, wait, wait, wait, that’s not enough, because I’m getting ready to put him up against a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Walker told the crowd.

He said his next challenge was being told he had “a mental problem” although he had never drunk alcohol or used drugs. He described sitting in a hospital for treatment of mental illness.

“I go, ‘Whoa! These people here are crazy. These people here are crazy; I’m not like them. And then the Lord showed me that we all fall short of the glory of God, and God started working me, he was molding me, getting me ready, and then he brought me back out. So he redeemed me.”

‘New normal’

After telling a joke about Heaven and Hell in which Satan represented the latter as a good place while “campaigning,” Walker began to mention Warnock by name.

“The guy I’m running against, Senator Warnock, there’s people out there on the left that’s campaigning right now, they’re telling you that this is the new normal. But God prepared me to tell you, this not the new normal.”

Soon after a comment that Warnock votes “against the people of Georgia,” Walker said, “Y’all seen this about defund the police? Is that not a dumb idea? Wait, wait, wait, wait, I can’t say ‘dumb’ because that’s not politically correct. That is a stupid idea.”

Not his stance

But ‘defund the police,’ a slogan used in protests over law enforcement shootings of Black people, particularly in 2020, does not resemble any policy Warnock supports. Warnock has repeatedly said, including during his 2020 campaign, that he opposes defunding police but supports responsibly funding law enforcement and holding officers accountable.

Walker continued, “The people we’re running against … don’t know the definition of a criminal. A criminal is someone that breaks the law, but yet, they don’t know the definition of a woman, but it’s in the Bible.”

“A man can’t get pregnant, get it out of your mind,” he said.

But what this has to do with Warnock, Walker didn’t say.

Law and order

“This is another thing he’s doing, another thing, he believes in ‘no cash bail,’” Walker said. “Can you believe that? No cash bail, don’t hold people accountable, they’re letting prisoners out of jail. That means that we’re going to become prisoners in our own homes. …

“Not on my watch,” Walker said.

In his 2020 campaign, Warnock did express support for eliminating cash bail for nonviolent misdemeanor offences, but not for violent crimes or felonies.

Other speakers at Friday’s rally – and Walker in a recording that played when the bus arrived – talked about high inflation as a problem for which they blame Democrats and especially President Joe Biden.

“Senator Warnock is trying to distance himself now from Joe Biden,” Walker said on stage. “He voted with him 96% of the time.”

Border and pro-life

The closest Walker came to defining policies he would support were his assertions for “securing the border” – which he said is something Democrats don’t want to talk about – and against abortion.

“They even brought abortion up in the debate. Did y’all see that? He brought abortion up thinking he could get me with abortion,” Walker said. “I’m like, wait a minute, now think about this for a moment. He said, you know what, the hospital room is too crowded for a doctor, a patient and the government. And I said, ‘Sir, don’t you realize there’s a baby in that room too, and I want to speak for the baby.’”

Then he called Warnock “that trickster” who wants “the government to come back in the room and pay for it, so he wants you to pay for it. … He likes to spend someone else’s money.”

Other speakers at the rally included U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee; U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Georgia 12th District; Republican National Committee-Georgia member Ginger Howard; Georgia state House Majority Leader Jon Burns; and Faith and Freedom Coalition Founder and Chairman Ralph Reed.