ATLANTA (AP) — At first glance, Herschel Walker has a coveted political profile for a potential Senate candidate in Georgia.
He was a football hero at the University of Georgia before his long NFL career. He’s a business owner whose chicken products are distributed across the U.S. And he’s a Black conservative with backing from former President Donald Trump, a longtime friend.
But an Associated Press review of hundreds of pages of public records tied to Walker’s business ventures and his divorce, including many not previously reported, sheds new light on a turbulent personal history that could dog his Senate bid. The documents detail accusations that Walker repeatedly threatened his ex-wife’s life, exaggerated claims of financial success and alarmed business associates with unpredictable behavior.
Walker, now 59, has at times been open about his long struggle with mental illness, writing at length in a 2008 book about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder. But it’s unclear how he would discuss these events as a candidate.
Walker did not respond to requests for comment. Multiple emails went unanswered, although his executive assistant confirmed they were received. AP also sent emails and left a message with his long-time attorney, who did not respond.
The Georgia seat is a top target for Republicans as they try to take control of the U.S. Senate in next year’s midterm elections. Walker’s potential bid is a wildcard. He might easily win the GOP primary with Trump’s help, setting up a general election fight against Democrat Raphael Warnock, who became Georgia’s first Black senator after a special election in January. But Republican leaders in Washington and Georgia are concerned that Walker’s history might haunt his campaign.
Walker “certainly could bring a lot of things to the table,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said in a recent interview. “But as others have mentioned, there’s also a lot of questions out there.”
Walker has yet to announce his intentions, but he has been consulting with political advisers in Georgia. A native of tiny Wrightsville, between Atlanta and Savannah, the former Dallas Cowboys star retired after the 1997 season and now resides in Texas. In a video posted to Twitter last month, he revs the engine of a sports car and says, “I’m getting ready, and we can run with the big dogs,” before revealing a Georgia license plate.
The Twitter tease intensified buzz about the potential for a celebrity candidate. But it also helped surface details about Walker's troubled past, many first disclosed by Walker himself in his 2008 book, “Breaking Free.”
His account details years of struggles and an eventual diagnosis in 2001. Walker describes himself dealing with as many as a dozen personalities — or “alters” — that he had constructed as a defense against bullying he suffered as a stuttering, overweight child.
In an AP interview at the time, Walker emphasized his purpose was to help others with similar disorders. “People say, ‘Herschel is just trying to write something to make money,’” he said. “I say, ‘Guys, why would I write something like this to make money?’”
The National Alliance on Mental Illness describes dissociative identity disorder as “alternating between multiple identities,” leaving a person with “gaps in memory of everyday events.” It notes men with the disorder “exhibit more violent behavior rather than amnesia.”
In his book, Walker acknowledges violent urges. He writes that he played Russian roulette and recounts sitting at his kitchen table in 1991 pointing a gun, loaded with a single bullet, at his head. “I wasn't suicidal,” Walker explained, but “just looked at mortality as the ultimate challenge.”