Republicans in Georgia and across the country are angry with former U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker for sitting on more than $4 million in leftover campaign funds, Politico reported.
Although the money could be used to help former President Donald Trump or the GOP in Georgia for this year's general election, it appears Walker has no intention of doing that.
The former NFL star lost to Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in the 2022 U.S. Senate race. There has been no talk of Walker making another political run.
"Those resources were solicited and given to support his candidacy as a Georgia Republican, and unless he intends to use them again for his own candidacy, I sure hope the favor would be returned," said John Watson, a former Georgia state GOP chair, Politico reported. "Georgia Republicans should be supported by those dollars in whatever legal fashion the campaign can."
Walker told Politico the unspent funds "wasn't money left in my account. Everyone keeps saying that."
Financial disclosures filed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed Walker still had $4.3 million in his account as of the end of March.
The FEC stipulates the money must be used for electioneering purposes or donated to charity.
Walker last year gave a $100,000 gift to Polaris Action Inc., an offshoot of the conservative foreign policy organization, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in February. He also spent more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions last year supporting his favorite charities and political allies.
Adding to GOP officials' frustrations this year is that the Georgia Republican Party is struggling for cash and the Republican National Committee had been getting outspent by its Democratic counterpart.
"Republicans are being outspent everywhere up and down the ballot and there's a significant sum of resources just sitting there," a Georgia GOP strategist told Politico. "It could be supporting Trump, who did a ton for Herschel's campaign."
However, fundraising for President Joe Biden's reelection bid plunged in April as contributions to Trump's campaign increased, Politico reported.
Biden announced that fundraising efforts across his campaign, associated committees, and the DNC brought in $51 million in April — a sizable drop from the $90 million in March that came after a spate of post-State of the Union events.