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Of course they’re using you, Herschel.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s never been a secret that the Republican Party was using Herschel Walker as a tool.
Thankfully, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham made that clear last month when — during a tandem interview with Walker — he declared that Walker’s election in his Senate race in Georgia would dispel allegations that people like Graham and Fox News host Sean Hannity (white conservatives, presumably) are racist.
Walker apparently didn’t take any issue with those remarks, but a new report suggests he and his campaign are taking exception to at least one way Republicans are trying to use him.
On Monday night, NBC News reported that Walker and his campaign have rebuffed Republicans for what the campaign calls “deceptive fundraising” invoking his name.
Republican politicians and associated committees are sending out desperate fundraising emails begging the GOP faithful to help save America by getting behind Herschel Walker in his Dec. 6 runoff against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia. But what’s not immediately clear to recipients is how little of that money is going to Walker’s campaign: just a dime for every dollar given by small donors.
The article notes that fundraising emails sent by various Republicans prompted recipients to donate, but the default settings had people donate 10 cents of every dollar to Walker’s campaign while the other Republicans kept the rest.
So, just to clarify things here: Republicans have been using Walker’s campaign — effectively, his labor — to raise money for themselves. And then they give him a meager cut of what they’ve raised.
Think of it like political sharecropping.
The list of grifters includes former President Donald Trump (who has used this trick before), the North Carolina GOP, North Carolina Sen.-elect Ted Budd and Ohio Sen.-elect J.D. Vance. It’s worth noting that Budd and Vance won’t be up for re-election until six years from now, but both camps evidently saw their own fundraising as being more urgent than Walker’s as he tries — clumsily — to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent.
Trump’s Save America PAC, Vance’s camp and the North Carolina GOP have since changed the default splits from 90:10 to 50:50, according to NBC News.
Walker is a Black agent of white supremacy who’s been happy to defend bigotry and condemn Black people at seemingly every turn. I have no doubt that will continue despite this intraparty hiccup. His camp’s spat with fellow right-wingers using his name to raise money is pretty revealing, though, as it shows Team Walker has a modicum of self-awareness.
They don’t mind Herschel being used. They just want him to get a bigger cut of the profits.