Herschel Walker Pledges to Pay Past Due Rents to Stop ‘Reverend Warnock from Evicting’ Church’s Tenants

Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Tuesday pledged to pay past due rents to stop “Reverend Warnock from evicting” tenants who live in a building his church owns in Atlanta, Georgia.

Following Monday revelations that Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) church had tried to evict at least eight tenants for late rent during the pandemic, Walker announced he would help the tenants and pay overdue rent.

“I have never known a preacher that likes abortion even after birth, won’t pay his child support, and evicts poor people to the street,” said Herschel Walker in a press release. “I will personally pay the $4,900 in past due rents listed in this article to keep Reverend Warnock from evicting these people.”

Warnock’s church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, of which he is still a pastor, reportedly tried to evict tenants for as little as $28.55 in overdue rent during the pandemic. Warnock’s pastoral salary in 2021 was $120,000, along with a $7,417 monthly housing allowance on top of his Senate salary.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Spokesman T.W. Arrighi said in a statement that Warnock has “more than a little explaining to do” about his church’s landlord policies:

While he collects nearly $90,000 – almost two and a half times the median income in Atlanta – from his church as a housing allowance, he was serving eviction notices in the middle of the pandemic for 28 bucks worth of unpaid rent. This should deeply unsettle Georgia voters, not just as a sign of blatant hypocrisy, but of unjust cruelty from a wealthy man of his stature.

Warnock’s church’s landlord tactics are especially rich because Warnock himself campaigned on eviction protection. During the 2020 Senate campaign, he slammed his political opponents for not going along with federal housing pandemic subsidies as “clearly only concerned with serving their own interests.”

“Pandemic unemployment benefits and eviction protections will expire this month. And it’s all because @Kloeffler and Senate Republicans refuse to fight for families. Pandemic relief is at stake in the #GASen race,” he tweeted.

Walker’s comment about Warnock not paying his child support is related to Warnock allegedly failing to reimburse his ex-wife for childcare costs, leaving her “financially strapped,” according to a court filing. Warnock has also been accused of running over his ex-wife’s foot. His ex-wife told police after the incident that Warnock was a “great actor.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.