The Senate confirms Herschel Walker as US Ambassador to the Bahamas

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Herschel Walker as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

Walker, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump who ran unsuccessfully for Georgia’s Senate seat three years ago, was confirmed along with more than 100 other candidates in a 51-47 vote that fell along party lines.

Walker will be the first US ambassador to the Bahamas in nearly 15 years. The US Embassy there has been led by a series of charge d’affaires since 2011.

Walker is a former NFL player who played for Dallas, Minnesota, Philadelphia and the New York Giants. He won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Georgia.

He lost his 2022 Senate campaign to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff. Walker’s campaign was marked by turmoil and scandal, including financial problems, micromanagement, and questions about his past that he struggled to address. Weeks before the election, a report revealed that Walker, who ran on an anti-abortion platform, had paid for an abortion in 2009.

He admitted he gave a $700 check to a former partner but denied knowing it was for an abortion in a 2022 interview with NBC News.

Trump defended Walker amid the abortion report that rocked his campaign. Walker was on the fence for Trump in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

Trump nominated Walker for the diplomatic position last December. Praise him In declaring himself an “ambassador for our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and our athletes at home and abroad.”

The ambassador’s position has been vacant since the departure of Nicole Avant, nominated by former President Barack Obama, in 2011.

Obama nominated Cassandra Potts, who was deputy White House counsel during his presidency, for this position in 2014, but the Senate has not taken a decision on the nomination. He renominated Potts a year later, but she died while her nomination was pending.