Law Enforcement Rallies Behind Herschel Walker in Race to Unseat Georgia Democrat Warnock

County sheriffs, police unions, and the U.S. Border Patrol union are lining up behind Republican Herschel Walker in his bid to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in the battleground U.S. Senate race in Georgia.

Walker’s campaign told Breitbart News that as of Friday, 113 county sheriffs — about 70 percent of the total number of county sheriffs in the state — have endorsed Walker, including a few Democrat-elected sheriffs.

“The amount of support for our campaign in the law enforcement community is gaining momentum every day,” Walker said in a statement.

Our heroic law enforcement officers work around the clock to protect and serve Georgians. @TeamHerschel will always #backtheblue.#gapol #gasen pic.twitter.com/ssp0mYv4pg

— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) July 29, 2022

In August, the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police, which reports a membership of more than 5,000, announced its endorsement of Walker.

“You have demonstrated a commitment to keep Americans safe while giving needed support to law enforcement through your words and actions,” the union president stated of the endorsement.

The Police Benevolent Association of Georgia has also endorsed Walker, as has the National Border Patrol Council, which, according to the union, about 90 percent of all eligible U.S. Border Patrol agents belong to.

Walker took aim at Warnock’s stance on law enforcement in his statement, saying Warnock is not a “champion” in Washington for those working in that field.

“He has demonized them and he’s done more for criminals than our law enforcement community,” Walker said. “I have always backed the blue and I will continue to do so in the U.S. Senate.”

Warnock, a longtime Baptist pastor, came under fire during his initial run for Senate in 2020 for disparaging police officers in various past sermons. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson compiled multiple instances of Warnock speaking negatively about law enforcement:

“In Ferguson, police power showing up in a kind of gangster and thug mentality,” Warnock said in 2015 in reference to Officer Darren Wilson shooting and killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

Warnock’s comment fed the false notion perpetuated by left-wing leaders and groups that Wilson murdered an innocent man, when, in reality, Wilson was exonerated of wrongdoing by a grand jury and the Obama Justice Department after investigations found Brown had attacked Wilson.

Warnock, an advocate for ending cash bail, said during another 2015 sermon:

When you think about the fact that America still warehouses 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, we shouldn’t be surprised when we see police officers act like bullies on the street. … You don’t get to be the incarceration capital of the world by playing nice on the streets. You have to work for that distinction.

Warnock has repeatedly insisted he does not support the far-left flank of his party’s call to “defund the police” and recently touted passage of a bipartisan bill he led to fund small police forces.

Warnock does, however, support sweeping police reforms, such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that would place numerous restrictions on officers and eliminate qualified immunity.

Warnock praised the bill last year after it barely passed the House with no Republican support and two Democrats voting against it. The bill was tabled because of a lack of support in the Senate, and other subsequent attempts to negotiate police reform in the Senate have also since failed.

Breitbart News reached out to Warnock’s campaign for comment on the slate of law enforcement entities backing Walker and did not receive a response.