CNN: “The news Monday that former NFL star Herschel Walker has registered to vote in Georgia is terrible news for Senate Republicans hoping to retake the majority next November. While it’s impossible to predict exactly how a campaign between Warnock and Walker would play out, what is clear is that the former NFL star would enter the race from that starting point. That reality has already led some Republican strategists close to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to speak out about the dangers of nominating Walker. ‘This is about as comprehensive a takedown as I’ve ever read,’ tweeted Josh Holmes, a longtime McConnell adviser, earlier this month of the AP story. ‘My lord.’ McConnell himself has yet to speak out publicly against Walker but, according to sources cited by CNN, has made his reservations very clear privately.”

“The problem for McConnell is that – as I noted above – if Walker is a candidate, he has a very high likelihood of being the party’s nominee given his celebrity and the likely strong backing he will have from the former president. (In March, Trump put out a statement that read in part: ‘He would be unstoppable, just like he was when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the NFL. He is also a GREAT person. Run Herschel, run!’) Given the current power dynamic in the Republican Party, it’s not at all clear that a McConnell-backed candidate like Loeffler or Perdue could overcome Walker – even with the various issues I documented above surrounding him. Which would then mean that in one of the GOP’s best pickup opportunities in the country, the party would put forward a candidate who is an opposition researcher’s dream – not to mention someone who has never run for any office prior to 2022.”