Sunday, October 09, 2022

IF HERSCHEL WALKER'S VOTERS STICK WITH HIM, IT'S BECAUSE THEY THINK THE TRIBE IS STILL ON HIS SIDE

It's not just that the Republican Party is sticking with Herschel Walker -- the Republican Party wants the party's voter base to see a show of support:
Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the Senate GOP's election arm, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will travel to Georgia for a Tuesday event supporting Herschel Walker....

"Today it's Herschel Walker, but tomorrow it's the American people. I'm on Herschel's team — and they picked the wrong Georgian to mess with. I'm proud to stand with Herschel Walker and make sure Georgians know that he will always fight to protect them from the forces trying to destroy Georgia values and Georgia's economy, led by Raphael Warnock," Scott said.

The Walker campaign event is scheduled to take place Tuesday afternoon in Carrollton, Georgia.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Scott chairs, will be making its presence felt in Georgia:
Republicans have shown no signs of backing away from the race, with multiple staffers from the NRSC planning to travel to the state in the coming weeks. Part of a recent cut in NRSC advertising spending in the New Hampshire Senate race, which was announced Friday, is expected to be reallocated to Georgia, according to a person familiar with the plans....
If the Walker campaign is salvageable -- I fear it's very salvageable -- this is how Republicans will salvage it. The point is to make persuadable voters believe that other persuadable voters still think it's perfectly reasonable to vote for Walker. If Republicans can manufacture the perception that Walker continues to have broad-based support, he'll have broad-based support -- maybe not enough to win, but we shouldn't rule that out.

The goal of this rally will be to draw a big crowd. If this works according to plan, right-leaning Georgia voters (and right-leaning donors nationwide) will see the crowds and instinctively believe that Walker is still widely supported. And then fewer of them will abandon him. They'll think the rest of the tribe is sticking with him, so why shouldn't they? (There are reports that Donald Trump might hold a rally for Walker after the scheduled Walker-Warnock debate next Friday, but Scott and Co. presumably want to get ahead of this and rally swing voters who might not like Trump.)

From internal polling and focus groups, the GOP must know that Walker can still win. They don't seem to be doing anything like this for Don Bolduc in New Hampshire or Blake Masters in Arizona, two candidates who are trailing but could conceivably narrow the gap -- in fact, there have been reports of reduced party support for Bolduc and Masters.

So they'll show the tribe that Walker is still very much in contention. And as a result, he probably will be.

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