GOP Senate Candidate Has Some Thoughts on Evolution

'Why are there still apes?' asks Herschel Walker
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 17, 2022 7:58 AM CDT
GOP Senate Candidate: If Evolution Is Real, 'Why Are There Still Apes?'
Herschel Walker enters a room to qualify to run for US Senate at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, March 7, 2022.   (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

More controversy for Senate candidate Herschel Walker: The candidate, who is seeking the GOP nomination in Georgia, is taking flak over comments he made questioning the theory of evolution, NPR reports. "At one time, science said man came from apes, did it not?" Walker told pastor Chuck Allen at Sugar Hill Church during an interview in front of the congregation Sunday. After Allen replied, "Every time I read or hear that, I think to myself, 'You just didn't read the same Bible I did," Walker told him, "That's what's interesting, though. If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it."

Scientists have long said that humans did not evolve from chimpanzees or any other living species of great ape, but we shared a now-extinct common ancestor with chimpanzees around 10 million years ago, that the Washington Post notes. Walker, a former college football and NFL star who won the Heisman Trophy in 1982, is seeking the nomination to run against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. He is leading in the polls and his remarks on evolution may not hurt him much politically: According to the Pew Research Center, only 26% of Georgians believe humans evolved due to natural processes, and almost 40% believe humans have always in existed in their current form.

Asked about his remarks, Walker spokeswoman Mallory Blount said, "The country is unraveling thanks to Raphael Warnock and Joe Biden and the media wants to talk about Herschel in church on a Sunday morning. No wonder we've got problems." The Hill reports that Gary Black, one of Walker's rivals for the GOP nomination, has rolled out an attack ad and a website looking at allegations Walker threatened and abused his former wife and two other women. "He threatened to kill women. He threatened to kill cops," the website states. (A Walker campaign website falsely claimed that he had finished college.)

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