The Republican party has a long history of just grabbing someone largely at random, and propping them up as The Next Big Thing and then throwing money at them. John McCain was never consulted about Sarah Palin being his runningmate for President. They brought her in to meet him one day on his airplane, he thought she was a dipshit and said no way... but they'd already sent out the press release before the meeting ended. Herschel Walker was a big name NFL player popular with Texas Boomer White Men, so they thought, "Let's make him Governor of... umm... GEORGIA!" And just slammed him into that open hole with no lube or even a kiss... someone just thought his name-recognition was an NFL player would be adequate to make him an excellent Governor for Georgia. This happens over and over and over again, and shows what absolute contempt the Republican Party has for their voters. And they fall for it every single time.... except now? It appears from exit polls that a LOT of Republican voters went for Warnock.
Go on... How... random What matters to Republicans is that they vote for Republicans. Who is or is not a Republican is a top-down decision. For people who view elections as superbowls, "name recognition" is most of it and for people who vote Republican, "Republican with name recognition" is 100% of it. This has been true since Eisenhower. The difficulty the Republicans currently face is the top-down definition of "Republican" is increasingly toxic - it runs contrary to get-out-the-vote operations and tends to suppress the vote of all but the most partisan. A party that literally ran 2020 on "whatever Trump says" does not have a deep bench of qualified legislators eager to kiss the ring. Thus, Herschel Walker, who was still within 4 points. 4 points in a deeply-gerrymandered, formerly crimson-red state, yes... but that, again, speaks to the toxic trap the Republicans have gotten themselves into. The best quote of this election cycle was that Republicans have a choice between embracing reason and losing in the primaries or embracing MAGA and losing in the general.The Republican party has a long history of just grabbing someone largely at random
Herschel Walker was a big name NFL player popular with Texas Boomer White Men