A Herschel Walker PAC paid for their groceries. Will shoppers vote for him in November?

Pork chops, chicken wings and loaves of bread sat in the buggy of Mark Bridges as he exited Adams Food Center in the small town of Preston.

The 46-year-old Webster County resident still isn’t sure who he’ll vote for in November’s U.S. Senate election between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and football star turned Republican politician Herschel Walker.

But that didn’t stop Bridges from taking a $50 grocery coupon from 34N22, a pro-Walker political action committee. The group stood outside the combined fuel stop, pharmacy and grocery store last week, giving away roughly $10,000 worth of vouchers in about 40 minutes.

Some took their coupons and planned to return to the store later in the day once they got off work. Others, like Bridges, made their way through the door and immediately began strolling the aisles.

The giveaway is part of the committee’s rural outreach to areas they say are overlooked as inflation and other economic pressures squeeze these residents. Future stops include cities and counties with larger Black populations — a group with which Republicans have struggled to make inroads.

“Some of these counties where there’s a heavy African American population are struggling,” said Stephen Lawson, a 34N22 representative. “They’re struggling with 40-year (record-high) inflation. They’re struggling with gas prices, and these are communities that are often neglected and forgotten by campaigns and candidates.”

The politics of giveaways and Webster County

The group has held similar gas and grocery events in cities like Atlanta, Macon and Camilla over the past few months. Republicans hope efforts like these will help them come election time. Georgia’s battleground status means every vote matters, and this election could determine the balance of power in the Senate.

Democrats have decried the giveaways and questioned their legality. Legal experts previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that these events are allowed as long as the vouchers are given to people regardless of their voter registration status or their political candidate of choice.

Meredith Brasher, a Warnock campaign spokesperson, didn’t address the lawfulness of the giveaways in a statement, but she said the junior U.S. senator is working to lower prices for Georgia residents.

“He led the bipartisan effort to pass the CHIPS and Science bill — legislation to drive down costs, grow Georgia jobs, and reduce our reliance on foreign nations like China — he’s fighting to suspend the federal gas tax to provide relief at the pump, and he’s working to lower the cost of everyday goods,” she said. “Meanwhile, Herschel Walker has no solutions to provide relief for hardworking Georgia families.”

Chris Grant, a Mercer University political science professor, said the gas and grocery giveaways mirror the free fish and barbecues offered by politicians of a bygone era — folks like former Georgia governors Marvin Griffin and rural populist Eugene Talmadge.

While the giveaways may be legal, Grant questions whether the vouchers are ethical in a state that prohibits anyone except poll workers from handing out water to voters in line.

“It raises a question about why you can’t give water in the election line and asks some other questions about what’s going on,” he said. “Where are the limits on this?’”

As the political parties trade barbs over the vouchers, Preston residents filled their grocery carts. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats, and some are somewhere in between.

The Ledger-Enquirer sampled 96 people who received grocery vouchers. Most — 45 people or roughly 47% of those who responded to the unofficial survey — said they’d vote for Walker in November. Thirty-five said they were undecided, and 16 said they were voting for Warnock.

Historical trends suggest that Walker will prevail here.

The county hasn’t gone blue in the final round of a U.S. Senate race since Max Cleland’s failed re-election bid in 2002. It last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, and voters there backed Democrat Roy Barnes in his failed 2010 gubernatorial bid.

But recent national and local elections have been close. Trump won the county in 2020 by fewer than 100 votes. A 2019 election for Superior Court clerk was tied and had to be redone after election officials didn’t allow an elderly Black woman to cast her ballot, online magazine Facing South reported.

Politics in Webster County are just like any other community, said 68-year-old grocery store owner Terry Adams as voucher-carrying customers filed through his store. But the lifelong Preston resident did point out one difference.

Preston is the seat of Georgia’s third-smallest county, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Black residents account for a little over 45% of the county’s population, and white residents make up almost 49%. Less than 2,400 call the Webster home, and you can’t afford to alienate a customer, he said.

“You see there’s no political signs on my property, and I can’t,” he said. “I can’t make somebody mad being in a small community. (If I) make somebody mad, and they’re not coming to your business, you can’t replace them.”

His customers, however, had no problem voicing their political opinions.

‘People like us’

Mathew Ramirez, like many others, said he’d vote for Walker in November. The 27-year-old stood outside the store with voucher in hand as he said the former University of Georgia running back cares about “people like us.”

“The biggest thing is in Washington right now we have a bunch of politicians (and) most of them are out there for themselves,” he said. “Here’s (a pro-Walker group) is in a small town, handing these out.”

Recent polling from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Walker trailing the incumbent Warnock, 43%-46%, with about 8% of voters undecided. Another 3% said they’d support Libertarian Chase Oliver.

Walker is underperforming compared to Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp. The same AJC poll shows Kemp with a lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams, 48%-43% with 7% of voters undecided.

Polling is an imperfect science, but Walker’s trailing could be the result of scandals and larger concerns about his fitness to hold public office, Grant said. Walker has faced criticism about fathering children he’s never mentioned to his business record.

“My suspicion about this is that it is particularly the relatively affluent, suburban, (metro-Atlanta) voter who is defecting from Herschel Walker while staying with Brian Kemp,” he said. “The gaffs that have been made by the Walker campaign… concern these folks quite a lot. While they might not love Warnock, he’s a known quantity, and they’re not worried that he could be actually dangerous.”

But reports of Walker’s transgressions don’t scare Ramirez.

“I think a lot of us have demons in our closets,” he said. “He’s had problems, but I’d still vote for him over Warnock. When (Warnock) first ran, everything came out about him and his wife and him being a wife beater… Everybody’s got issues. Everybody’s human. That’s what makes us human. I mean — if we were perfect, we’d be Jesus Christ.”

While Warnock’s now-ex-wife accused him of running over her foot with his car, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2020 that he was not charged with a crime, and an officer said in a police report that medical officials didn’t find visible signs of injury.

‘We need a good person in office.’

Few shoppers were vocal about their support for Warnock, but 22-year-old Mallory Brown and 21-year-old Mykala Lundy didn’t shy away when asked about their support for the first-term Democrat. Both said they voted for Warnock in the last election cycle.

The stepsisters each took a coupon and bought ground beef, spaghetti sauce, cheese, Texas toast, grapes, crackers and other items. When the cashier said they had $30 left to use, they made a second trip through the aisles just to hit the $100 limit.

A big bag of chips the pair grabbed near the register put them 41 cents over the magic mark, but the clerk didn’t want the extra coins. She let the two women leave.

As they loaded up their groceries, the pair said they supported Warnock’s efforts to expand voting rights as well as Medicaid. Brown has a 1-year-old daughter, and doctor visits are expensive, she said.

“He’s pushed for (voting rights) way more than any other person,” Lundy said. “I just hope he wins.”

Then, there are folks like Mark Bridges. As he stood behind his cart outside the store, he said he plans to cast a ballot come November, but he isn’t sure who will get his vote yet.

What could be the deciding factor for him in this election?

“We need a good person in office who helps everybody because right now, the world is messed up,” he said.