Walker insists he’ll win Georgia Senate race, while repeatedly denying abortion allegations

Herschel Walker’s confidence in winning Georgia’s Senate race in November doesn’t seem to be wavering despite the scandal his campaign has been embroiled in this week.

“I know I’m going to win this race,” the Republican nominee told reporters at a campaign event in Georgia on Thursday.

Walker’s insistence that he’ll prevail next month against his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, comes in contrast with widespread criticism of the former NFL running back after The Daily Beast reported this week that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, despite running his campaign on a staunchly anti-abortion platform. He repeated blanket denials of the allegation at the campaign event, even following a subsequent Daily Beast report on Wednesday alleging that the woman who claims he paid for her abortion was also the mother of one of his children.

The Senate candidate, after delivering a standard stump speech to a crowd of lumber workers in Wadley, Ga., deflected questions about the allegations, calling The Daily Beast report a “lie.” Walker has in other interviews this week repeatedly denied paying for the abortion and said he didn’t know who the woman was who anonymously came forward with the story.

The Senate nominee seemed to concede earlier on Thursday that if he had paid for the abortion, “there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” despite his hard-line anti-abortion stance throughout his campaign.

“Had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there,” Walker told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “You know, people have done that, but I know nothing about it. And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that.”

But at his campaign event when asked about that statement, he said he was referring to other actions having to do with his ex-wife and son, “nothing to do with what this woman said.” Walker’s son Christian took to social media this week to blast his father for what he said were the “lies” the candidate told on the campaign trail about upholding “family values.” He also accused Walker of abusive behavior.

The recent scandal is one of several blemishes over the past year on Walker’s campaign, which has been marred by allegations of domestic abuse and fathering several children whom he didn’t raise. But the allegations seem to have done little to stymie congressional Republican support for Walker, with GOP senators labeling the recent media reports about him as a “smear campaign.”

Walker employed similar rhetoric at the campaign event on Thursday, saying in response to a question about the allegations against him that Democrats were “desperate” for the Senate seat he’s running for.

“The Democrats are desperate for this seat. This seat is important,” Walker said. “They’re very desperate for this seat.”