As Warnock maintains lead in new poll, Walker goes on the attack
Warnock responds to Walker's eviction claims
The latest in the senate race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker show a new campaign against Warnock, claiming the church he pastors evicted low-income residents. Warnock responded to those claims in an exclusive interview with FOX 5 Atlanta's Rob DiRienzo.
CARROLLTON, Ga. - The latest FOX 5/Insider Advantage poll shows Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock with a three-point lead over Republican opponent Herschel Walker.
Of the 550 likely voters polled, 46 percent said they are supporting Warnock. 43 percent said they want Walker. The margin of error on the Oct. 16 poll is ±4%.
As Walker trails in the polls in a markedly bitter race, he took a swing at Warnock Tuesday morning with claims that the reverend is trying to evict people from an apartment complex his church is connected with.
"You see this weather right now?" Walker told reporters in front of the Columbia Tower at MLK Village in the chilly morning air. "You have a senator that wants to put people out."
Sen. Warnock fired back at a campaign stop in Carrollton shortly after.
"This is yet another example of a Herschel Walker lie," Warnock said, slamming Walker for invoking the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in the political battle. "This is a candidate who has so little to offer to the people of Georgia that he has resorted to trying to soil the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s church."
Columbia Tower is owned by a for-profit entity with ties to Ebenezer and is managed by another company.
Gathered behind Walker, a handful of people held signs that said, "Eviction Notice."
"The people behind us right now are being evicted. Yes it is true, no one has left," he said. "But they got the eviction notice."
When pressed by reporters if any of the people standing behind him were being evicted -- or even lived there – Walker refused to answer.
While no one has been evicted from the building, management has filed a handful of warrants against residents for overdue rent, some owing a little more than a hundred dollars.
Members of Walker’s campaign attempted to give Warnock copies of the warrants at the Carrollton stop.
"My church has no involvement in the day-to-day operations of the apartment building," Warnock told FOX 5’s Rob DiRienzo.
At the end of Walker’s news conference, he implored members of the media to go and talk to residents inside the building, but a security guard would not let FOX 5 past the lobby.