WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed former football star Herschel Walker to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, according to CBS News.
President Donald Trump nominated Walker for the post last year, after the retired running back entered politics as the Republican nominee in Georgia’s 2022 Senate race. Walker lost that contest to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock by 2.8 points in a runoff. His confirmation marks the first time in more than a decade that the U.S. has a Senate-confirmed ambassador to the Bahamas.
Walker rose to national fame as a Heisman Trophy winner with the University of Georgia Bulldogs in 1982. He went on to play professionally for the U.S. Football League’s New Jersey Generals — a team Trump later purchased — before moving to the NFL, where he played for over a decade.
His political career has been more controversial. During his Senate campaign, Walker faced accusations that he paid for several women to have abortions, despite publicly opposing the procedure. He denied the allegations. Walker also previously served on Trump’s President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition before being removed during the Biden administration.
“Herschel has spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Trump wrote in a December Truth Social post backing his nomination.
Walker was confirmed along with more than 100 other Trump nominees in a 51-47 vote. Senate Republicans pushed the nominees through under new rules allowing them to approve large groups “en bloc” with a simple majority, bypassing the slower one-by-one process. Democrats criticized the move as a “nuclear” option.
Among the other high-profile nominees confirmed Tuesday was former White House aide Sergio Gor, who will serve as ambassador to India.
The votes came as the Senate remains at an impasse over the ongoing government shutdown. Lawmakers are expected to consider competing proposals to reopen the government on Wednesday, though both Democratic and Republican bills have already been voted down multiple times.
