Herschel Walker has 'provided no evidence' to back up claim that he is part Native American: reporter

13 October 2022

On the campaign trail, Herschel Walker — the MAGA Republican and former football star who is trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia — has been bragging that he found out from his mother that he is part Native American. But according to Daily Beast reporter Matt Young, “Walker and his campaign have provided no evidence for his claims.”

In an article published by the Beast on October 13, Young explains, “In January, at a campaign event at the University of Georgia, Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker boldly announced that he had just found out through his mother that he is ‘40 percent Native American.’ In the following months, the former NFL star would repeat the claim several times, with slightly different twists, though each time, he said he had just learned the news.”

Young notes, however, that “some digging by” HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery “has shown no links” between “Walker and the Native American community so far.”

“Cherokee Nation, the largest of three recognized tribes in the U.S., told HuffPost it had no record of Walker in its database,” Young reports. “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. Walker’s mother, Christine, spoke to the site and said ‘she has no idea if an immediate ancestor was full-blooded Cherokee.’”

Young continues, “She said she grew up hearing stories about her father’s mother being ‘kin’ to the tribe, clarifying that ‘her grandmother was believed to be related to Cherokee peoples in some way, but she didn’t know how.’ She told HuffPost that ‘I don’t know how far back’ the family’s Cherokee heritage went. ‘See, my grandmother, she passed when I was quite young. I don’t know too much about how she was connected.’ Walker’s campaign did not respond when contacted with a follow-up request for comment.”

How much Native American heritage Walker does or doesn’t have is unlikely to affect the outcome of Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, but one issue that is definitely on the minds of Georgia voters is abortion. Warnock is pro-choice, while Walker believes that abortion should be totally illegal even in cases of rape or incest. But in early October, the Beast’s Roger Sollenberger reported that according to a former girlfriend, Walker impregnated her in 2009 and paid for her abortion. Walker has vehemently denied that allegation, but the Beast has maintained that it has solid proof to back up the woman’s allegation.

Georgia’s U.S. Senate race has been among the nail-biters of the 2022 midterms. Some polls released in September showed Warnock slightly ahead, while others showed Walker slightly ahead. A poll released by Quinnipiac on October 12 found Walker trailing Warnock by 7 percent, but other polls released around October 11 or 12 showed a much closer race — with Warnock ahead by 2 percent (The Hill/Emerson College) or 3 percent (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

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