Who is Christian Walker, Senate candidate Herschel Walker's son?
After the Daily Beast reported in a bombshell story on Monday that Herschel Walker — the self-proclaimed “pro-life” Republican running for the Senate in Georgia — paid for his then girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, his son Christian tweeted his way into the headlines.
Christian Walker, a conservative social media influencer who has nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter, half a million followers on Instagram and over 165,000 on TikTok, has remained largely absent during his father’s campaign. He said in a post on Tuesday that he’s attended just one campaign event for his father: a fundraiser in December at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
A few hours after the story broke that an unidentified woman had provided receipts from an abortion clinic and a bank deposit showing a signed check from Herschel Walker, as well as a “get well” card sent to the woman, whom the NFL great reportedly dated in 2009, Christian called his father out for having “threatened to kill” him and his mother, Cindy Grossman, and for "destroying" people's lives.
I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us.
You’re not a “family man” when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022
Christian once supported Herschel. What changed?
Christian Walker followed up with several videos on Tuesday morning. First he slammed his critics on the right for describing as “suspicious” his sudden about-turn in calling out his father's “lying.” Next he accused his left-wing critics of acting as though he is “responsible” for his father’s actions.
“I stayed silent when it came out that my father, Herschel Walker, had all these random kids across the country — none of whom he raised. And you know my favorite issue to talk about is father absence. Surprise! Because it affected me. … Family values, people! He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them.
“I was silent lie after lie after lie,” Christian continued. “The abortion part drops yesterday — it's literally his handwriting in the card. They say they have receipts, whatever. He gets on Twitter, he lies about it. OK, I'm done. Done.
“Everything has been a lie.”
I’ve stayed silent for nearly two years as my whole life has been lied about publicly. I did ONE campaign event, then said I didn’t want involvement.
Don’t you dare test my authenticity. Here is the full story: pic.twitter.com/ekVEcz8zq3— Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022
Herschel Walker faces a tight race against Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in his bid to fill one of Georgia’s Senate seats in this year’s midterm elections. His candidacy was promoted and endorsed by former President Donald Trump. His son, on various platforms, had amplified Herschel Walker's professed conservative views and declared, “I'm MAGA.”
Who is Christian?
Born in 1999, Christian Walker, who labels himself on Twitter as a “free-speech radicalist,” was raised by Grossman, Herschel Walker's first wife. His father is Black and his mother is white. In a 2008 interview with ABC News, Grossman alleged that on one occasion, Herschel Walker “just kind of raged and he got a gun and put it to my temple.” She claimed that, during a therapy session, her ex-husband threatened to kill her.
The 23-year-old Christian Walker, who hosts an “anti-woke” podcast titled “Uncancellable,” graduated from UCLA this spring and is a former cheerleader. When he won a Cheerleading World Championship title competing with the co-ed Spirit of Texas team in 2016, his father spoke affectionately of him, telling TMZ, "I was so thrilled about it because there was a lot of good competition there.”
Becoming a right-wing influencer
In a TikTok video shared this year, Christian declared he was attracted to “big, strong, muscular men,” but distanced himself from what he called “that rainbow group.” To him, he explained, the “'gay' word” means “You go to Pride events, you go to the gay club every weekend. You’re a leftist,” animatedly describing the stereotypes and saying he did not want to be identified with them. In 2020, he led a “Gays for Trump” march in West Hollywood, Calif.
He has denounced the Black Lives Matter movement as being “extremely violent” and described it as destroying minority communities.
“What have they done? They haven't helped low-income communities, they actually destroyed many minority-owned businesses ... even on my street in Los Angeles," he said in an interview with Fox Business in October 2020. "It's very frustrating that many Democrats and people on the left fall down and worship Black Lives Matter simply because it has a good name.”
In July, Christian Walker moved to Miami from Los Angeles, saying California had been ruined by the left, and taking aim at its Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, in several videos and Twitter posts. He said he had moved to “DESANTIS-LAND, FLORIDA” because of its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. He described the state as one “that supports my values” and “protects residents.”
His Twitter account is peppered with right-wing rhetoric, calling out “wokeness” and an increase in crime in “liberal” states and praising the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. He has also railed against the Biden administration’s policies on issues such as immigration, student loan forgiveness and mask mandates.
‘I'm done’
After the Daily Beast story published its story this week, Christian Walker tweeted, “Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one. He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it. I'm done."
His father responded publicly by tweeting: “I LOVE my son no matter what.”
Herschel Walker has denied the abortion claims, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that he “never asked anyone to get an abortion. I never paid for an abortion — it's a lie," and issuing a statement threatening to sue the Daily Beast for defamation.
Last year the candidate, who has said his opposition to abortion is “from the womb to the tomb,” completed a survey from the Georgia Life Alliance indicating that he supports outlawing abortion, including in instances of rape and incest.
“I am 100% pro-life. As Georgia’s next Senator, I will vote for any legislation which protects the sanctity of human life, even if the legislation is not perfect,” he wrote in the survey. “Every human life is valuable and absolutely worth saving.”
