Supporters of Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker are floating the thought of getting popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis join him on the runoff race campaign trail.
Walker is facing off against incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election that can be selected Dec. 6.
Some Republicans fear that Trump, who endorsed Walker early in his campaign, may hurt the previous NFL running back by further injecting himself into the campaign, and imagine that DeSantis or Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) could be more helpful.
“I believe that Youngkin or DeSantis is a greater fit for soft Republicans or independents within the suburbs that we want to end up,” Ralph Reed, president of the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition, told CNN.
An individual near the Walker campaign also told CNN that DeSantis campaigning for Walker could be “an enormous draw if we could get him,” stating that the Florida governor didn’t stump for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who was opposed by Trump, despite the state being lower than 20 miles from the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
Kemp, who defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams on Tuesday, has reportedly told allies that he desires to help Walker in any way possible before Dec. 6.
Trump allies told CNN that it could be much harder to influence Trump to remain out of the state if DeSantis were to campaign for Walker.
“Imagine [Trump] seeing Ron campaign for Herschel while he’s being told, ‘Please stay away.’ He would go ballistic,” the Trump ally told the outlet.
Trump went on a social media tirade against DeSantis on Thursday, saying that DeSantis mustn’t run in 2024 and blasting him as an “average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations.”
Trump also lambasted Youngkin on Friday in a racially insensitive attack, where he said that the governor’s name “sounds Chinese.”
With the GOP’s hopes for Senate control increasingly looking like they are going to hinge on the end in Georgia, party strategists fear that Trump getting involved within the runoff race will drive Republican voters away from the polls.
“Hopefully Trump will stay out of the race as much as he possibly can,” a Republican aide told the Hill.
A compromise that’s being discussed in Trumpworld, in keeping with CNN, is having the forty fifth president write a generous check to assist Walker’s campaign. Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC is sitting on a war chest of greater than $100 million, and it gave GOP candidates $16.4 million because the 2022 cycle wrapped up.
“He’s taking a look at how he can salvage this moment and one among the ways for him to do this is to assist Walker win,” a Trump adviser told CNN, referring to the stinging Election Day defeats several Trump-backed candidates endured which have reportedly left Trump in a “bad mood.”