Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker launched a seven-figure, statewide ad blitz on Monday highlighting Democratic senator Raphael Warnock’s evictions of tenants at his low-income housing complex and domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife.
One tenant featured in the ad, a Vietnam war veteran, slammed Warnock for taking a $7,000-a-month, tax-free housing allowance from Ebenezer Baptist Church—where Warnock serves as senior pastor and CEO—even as the church’s apartment complex tried to boot residents for owing as little as $28.50 in late rent, according to additional interview footage provided to the Washington Free Beacon by Walker’s campaign.
The TV campaign comes just eight days before polls close in the competitive runoff election, which will determine if the Senate remains evenly split between the parties or if Democrats eke out a one-point majority. Walker has taken aim at the evictions and living conditions at Warnock’s church-owned apartment complex, which has tried to eject multiple residents throughout the pandemic and has been hit with housing code violations for rats, mold, and overflowing garbage, the Free Beacon first reported.
Walker has also highlighted allegations that Warnock hit his ex-wife with his car and left her "financially strapped" by failing to reimburse childcare expenses, even as the pastor’s salary nearly doubled since joining the Senate.
"He ain’t even want you in the building where he’s the senior pastor," said Phillip White, a 69-year-old Vietnam War veteran, who was interviewed for the ad. "And they pay [Warnock] $7,000 a month."
Warnock denied that the building was attempting to evict residents, despite court filings that showed the building has tried to oust over a dozen tenants since the start of the pandemic and Fulton County marshals carried out writs of possession on at least two occasions, the Free Beacon first reported.
"And he said no there will be no evictions, he meant until the election’s over. He treats me like [expletive]."
The TV ad opens with a clip from a recent Warnock campaign commercial in which the pastor faces the camera and says: "Character is what you do when nobody’s watching."
The ad then shows police bodycam footage of Warnock’s ex-wife telling officers that the pastor intentionally ran over her foot with his Tesla during a domestic dispute, in March 2020. Warnock has denied the allegations.
In another clip, White recounts that Warnock’s church-owned building tried to evict him for owing $119 in late rent.
"He’s gonna [expletive] evict you for $119. One hundred and nineteen dollars."