ATLANTA — It’s been a rough week for Herschel Walker, as a flurry of media stories revealed the U.S. Senate candidate had fathered three children he had not spoken about publicly.
But in an appearance Saturday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Walker said the news “just made me want to fight harder.”
“I’ve never denied any of my kids,” Walker said. “I love them more than I love anything.”
Walker speaks frequently about Christian, the 22-year-old son whose mother is his ex-wife. But news broke this week in The Daily Beast that Walker has three additional children by three different women. In the case of one child, a 10-year-old son, the mother sued Walker to obtain a declaration of paternity and child support, according to court records.
The news was particularly notable because Walker has spoken out repeatedly against absentee dads, especially in the Black community.
“I want all African Americans out there to know, even though you may leave the mom, don’t leave the child, " Walker said in an interview last month with Atlanta rapper Killer Mike.
“Continue to be a dad,” Walker said. “Continue to be a strong figure in that child’s life.”
On Saturday, Walker sat down with Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed in an apparent attempt at damage control with a key Republican constituency — evangelical Christians.
“It did not not take long after that primary victory for the Democrats and media to start firing artillery at you,” Reed said. “But this week it got even more personal and vicious and they dragged your children into this.”
Walker said he was prepared for whatever comes his way in the race against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, which could determine control of the Senate.
“I knew what I signed up for when I got into this and they don’t realize that,” he said.
He then invoked a biblical verse: “I need to let them know that no weapon formed against me shall ever prosper.”
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