family ties

Now even Herschel Walker’s mom throws doubt on his latest claims

Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker (Photo: YouTube)

Herschel Walker’s mom has cast doubt on some of the former football player’s recent claims on the campaign trail.

Walker is running for the US Senate seat in Georgia. He’s up against the Democrat incumbent, Raphael Warnock.

At a campaign event late last month in Forsyth, Georgia, Walker made an announcement about his heritage.

“My mom just told me that my mom, grandmother, was full-blood Cherokee,” Walker said. “So I’m Native American!”

“I’m a super mutt,” he continued. “I don’t know what I am, but this was so funny. This was so funny. I said, ‘Mom, why you never said anything to us?’ She said, ‘Back in my days, a lot of the Native Americans were treated worse than Blacks.’”

The comments echo something similar Walker said back in January at the University of Georgia, when he said he’d just discovered his mother is “40% Native American.” He has repeated the claim on other occasions.

In June, at another event, he said he’d done a ’23 and Me’ ancestry test, finding out, “I’m part Native American.”

Related: Herschel Walker’s opponent destroys him with one, brutally honest tweet

Christine Walker gives her opinion

HuffPost reached out to the three federally-recognized Cherokee tribes in the US to ask them if they could verify Walker’s claims. Only one, Cherokee Nation, got back to them. It said it had no record of Walker in its database.

Walker’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost, which asked for the name of Walker’s grandmother.

HuffPost then reached out to Walker’s mom, Christine.

In a brief phone call, she recalled hearing stories growing up about her dad’s mom being connected to the Cherokee tribe. However, she couldn’t clarify the connection.

“Back when I was a little child running around, she was kin to the Cherokee.”

“I don’t know how far back. See, my grandmother, she passed when I was quite young. I don’t know too much about how she was connected.”

She was unable to confirm if anyone in their family was a “full-blood Cherokee.”

Campaign controversy for Herschel Walker

Walker’s campaign has been dogged with controversy. In the last couple of weeks, there have been allegations he paid for a former girlfriend to have an abortion back in 2009. These revelations prompted Walker’s son, Christian, to condemn his dad’s beahviour on the campaign trail and his treatment toward Christian and his mom.


Related: Christian Walker turns on dad Herschel in spectacular fashion

Most opinion polls have shown Warnock and Walker evely tied, although Warnock appeared to nudge a couple of points ahead in the wake of the abortion stories last week.

Later today, the two candidates will finally go head-to-head in an eagerly-awaited live debate at Savannah’s District Live event venue.

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