Self-Described ‘Not That Smart’ Georgia Man Thinks He Should Be a U.S. Senator

Georgia’s Herschel Walker said on Friday that he is “not that smart”—but that’s not stopping his campaign to be a U.S. senator. Walker, the state’s Republican candidate, uttered the bizarre self-own when asked about the debate against his opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), next month.

“I am getting out talking to people and talking to you,” Walker told a group of reporters. “I’m a country boy. I’m not that smart. He’s a preacher. [Warnock] is smart and wears these nice suits. So he is going to show up and embarrass me at the debate Oct. 14, and I’m just waiting to show up and I will do my best.”

Look, I understand wanting to set expectations low, but the debate is nearly a month away—which, for most candidates, would be plenty of time to prepare for a decent performance. Walker, however, is not most candidates, and his comment was just the latest in an ongoing string of weird things he’s said. When asked about gun control following the devastating school shooting in Ulvade, Texas, Walker dodged the question, ultimately saying, “What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff,” he said—honestly, one of his better answers. When asked about it again on Fox News, Walker crashed and burned, suggesting “a department that can look at young men that’s looking at women that’s looking at social media” as a possible solution to gun violence in schools.

In an attempt to criticize the Inflation Reduction Act, Walker got mad about…trees. “They continue to try to fool you that they are helping you out,” Walker said of Democrats. “But they’re not. Because a lot of money, it’s going to trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

The Georgia seat is crucial to Democrats maintaining control of the Senate. Despite Walker’s horrible candidacy, he doesn’t trail Warnock by all that much. A Quinnipiac poll in early September showed Warnock leading 52 percent to Walker’s 46 percent. The Real Clear Politics average has the men in a tie.

Walker told reporters this weekend that meeting voters in person is what will make him victorious in this race. “What I have to do is continue to get out and meet people, which is what I’m doing here. I’m more than just a football player. What I’m doing now is moving forward by talking to the voters, because that’s what really counts and let them know what I stand for,” Walker said. “I was a great football player, but I will be a better senator because I represent the people.”

But maybe—and this might be controversial—the people of Georgia deserve a person confident in their own intelligence to represent them in the Senate.