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Republican US Senate hopeful Herschel Walker neglected to report nearly $3.2 million in earnings in a federal financial disclosure, waiting five months to amend the sum.
Walker's original candidate report, filed in December 2021, listed him and his spouse cumulatively earning $927,886 from late 2020 to the end of 2021 through various corporations, including a $100,000 salary from "Renaissance Man Food Services, LLC."
Five months later, Walker amended his candidate report to show that he brought in an additional $3.2 million from an "H. Walker Enterprises." He amended his overall income in the disclosure to $4.1 million, more than four times higher than the original candidate report, according to Insider's review of the documents.
According to H. Walker Enterprises' website, the company's stated mission is to "establish a business structure capable of servicing food service, corporate and retail customers with a variety of products on a national level." It's unclear what role Walker currently plays in the company, his campaign report simply notes it as "partnership distributions."
Representatives from Walker's campaign and H. Walker Enterprises did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
According to the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics, candidates are required by law to submit a candidate report detailing their honoraria payments, income, assets, liabilities, compensation, and other personal financial details within 30 days of becoming a candidate.
Candidates who violate this law could face a fine, or in extreme cases, an inquiry by the Department of Justice. But candidates rarely face significant penalties — if any at all — for misstating their income, even if the amount involved is large.
Walker, who is supported by former President Donald Trump, is expected to win Georgia's six-way Republican primary on May 24. If Walker wins, he's almost assured to face incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in the November general election.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight, told Insider that Walker amending his report so late in the game undermines "the basic compact between a person running for office and the people they are trying to recruit to support them."
He said that voters and supporters who donate assume that the information listed in a candidate's original report is complete.
"There's some potential a voter who may find him supportable may have already contributed some money on the basis of the information they had at that point," Hedtler-Gaudette said. "But as we're seeing now, that information was incomplete."
