Mired in a tight special election race, U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler unleashed Georgia icon Herschel Walker in a TV ad that’s set to saturate the airwaves through November.
Cradling a football, Walker speaks directly to camera while a clip plays of him steamrolling a hapless defensive back as he vouches for the Republican incumbent.
“When I played football, I ran over a lot of people, and I didn’t let anyone run over me,” Walker said. “My friend Kelly Loeffler is like that. When the fake news media attacked Kelly, she went right back at them.”
The ad will get plenty of airtime until the Nov. 3 special election, including slots in Saturday’s primetime Georgia-Alabama matchup. Her campaign hopes the Bulldog’s bite gives Loeffler an edge over U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, her Republican arch-rival.
With nearly two dozen candidates on the same ballot, the two are competing for a spot in a likely January runoff along with Democratic frontrunner Raphael Warnock, an establishment-backed pastor who has soared ahead of both in recent polls.
Walker’s debut in the race is the latest addition to a constellation of Loeffler ads that have ranged from shiny soft-focus spots to a series that asserted she’s more conservative than “Attila the Hun.”
Loeffler has fueled the ad onslaught by pumping $20 million of her own cash into her campaign, and her husband Jeff Sprecher, the owner of a behemoth Atlanta-based financial platform, has underwritten an outside group that’s raised another $10 million.
Though he lives in Texas, Walker has become an important figure in Georgia GOP circles. He was a key supporter of Gov. Brian Kemp, who appointed Loeffler. And he spoke at the Republican National Convention of his close ties to President Donald Trump.
In the 30-second ad, Walker emphasizes Loeffler’s loyalty to the president, her anti-abortion stance and her fight against the “radical cancel culture.”
“Take it from me, Herschel: She’s a game changer for Georgia.”
