RINCON — Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black is not a political version of Bill Bates. He is supremely confident that former football great Herschel Walker, who flattened Bates in the 1980 Georgia-Tennessee game en route to his first Bulldogs touchdown, won’t run over him.

Walker is the front-runner in the May 24 Republican U.S. Senate primary. He holds a major polling and fundraising advantage over Black and other challengers.

“I know Georgia and Georgia knows me,” Black said Friday during a stop at the Effingham Herald. “That’s one way (I win).”

Black, a fixture in state agriculture and politics for four decades, added that voters probably know plenty about Walker as a football player but he is a mystery as a Senate candidate. Walker dodged a debate in Gainesville on Saturday.

“Of course, we are in the education process now,” Black said. “I’ve said it this way — three weeks ago, everybody qualified. You wrote your check for $5,250. That’s what it cost to get your name on the ballot.

“... Once the qualifying date passes, Georgia voters will say whose qual-i-fied to do this. That’s why it is turning our way.”

Black, in his third term as agriculture commissioner and a former Georgia Farm Bureau and Georgia Agribusiness Council official, is trying to shed light on Walker through a website. The political novice has had several brushes with the law, including multiple allegations of domestic violence. He threatened police officers with a gun during one of them.

“I took full responsibility for realherschel.com,” Black said. “The reason is we had to have a way to educate people before the primary because the notion that you can hide from all of this is insulting. (His advisors) have him hid.

“If I was his consultant, I would encourage him to hide, too, because Georgians are not going to elect someone with a violent history against women. They are not going to elect someone who threatened to have a shootout with the police.”

Black alleged other misdeeds by Walker, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

“There is carnage on both sides of the right of way when it comes to his business deals because they are a sham,” Black said. “He has left people high and dry. He can’t tell the truth.

“Georgians want their senator to tell the truth and, if he can’t tell the truth now, he will not tell the truth when he is serving. For years, he claimed to be the valedictorian of Johnson County High School. He was not!

“For years, he claimed to graduate in the top one percent at the University of Georgia. He did not because he did not graduate!

“... The first time he voted was in 2020. He didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 because he didn’t vote. He’s never voted in a Republican primary.”

Black, who dubbed himself a “Trump police supporter,” warned that there are plenty of other reasons for Republicans to select their Senate candidate wisely. The other contenders are Josh Clark, Kelvin King, Jonathan McColumn and Latham Saddler.

“Whether we want to believe it or not, Georgia is a border state,” Black said. “I think the number one issue is securing the border. It’s a security threat (as it is currently).

“The immigration invasion — Georgians want it to stop.”

Black is against totally amnesty for illegal immigrants. He said Walker is not.

“He believes that people that are here illegally should have a pathway to citizenship,” Black said. “Georgia Republicans will not tolerate that. Half of Georgia Democrats won’t tolerate it, either.

“That’s why (Walker) will never be elected. He will never be elected. If he is the nominee, he will never be elected.”

Black outlined keys to defeating Sen. Raphael Warnock, the likely Democrat nominee, in November. 

“We are going to stop illegal immigration and we are going to get a handle on this inflation situation,” he said. “We are going to get back to energy independence and we need to get government in its place. There are some things the government should do but we want Supreme Court justices who should be constitutionalists in nature.

“That’s the Georgia I know.”

Black touched on climate change.

“I believe that China, Mexico, India — I believe that our competitors should come up to our standards before we take any more steps (against it),” he said.