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Though former President Donald Trump has steered clear of Georgia during Walker’s runoff campaign, Trump has been a prominent backer of the candidate.

Their decades-long relationship traces back to when Walker was a pro football player; in 1983, the Heisman Trophy winner joined the New Jersey Generals in the now-defunct United States Football League. The team was sold to Trump after the 1983 season. Herschel was signed by the Cowboys in 1986, the same year the United States Football League folded.

In 2009, Walker was a contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “The Celebrity Apprentice,” in a season won by Joan Rivers.

During his presidency, Trump appointed Walker to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition in 2018, and then as the council’s co-chair in 2020. The Biden administration requested that Walker resign from the two-year position earlier this year due to an administration policy barring federal candidates from serving on presidential boards.

Walker entered the Republican primary in the Georgia Senate race in August 2021 at the urging of Trump, whose support largely cleared the field, and Trump prominently supported him throughout the race.

Trump backed Walker after the anti-abortion candidate denied an ex-girlfriend’s claim that he paid for her to have an abortion in 2009.

In announcing his third bid for the White House last month, Trump urged voters in Georgia to support Walker, who also spoke in support of Trump at the 2020 Republican National Committee.