Year in Review: The most outlandish statements made on the campaign trail this cycle

Barnini Chakraborty

December 25, 06:00 AM December 25, 06:10 AM

Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker made headlines this year more for his political gaffes than his policy points.

The football legend called himself "220 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal" at a campaign stop on Nov. 29. That same day, he talked himself through the ins and outs of a border wall, saying: "A wall do work. When you got a wall around your house, people don't ... yeah, but they can get in. But you know what? If they get in, it would be hard to get out because I got a dog that ... well, my dog really won't bite, but he's pretty bad anyway."

He's not the only candidate this cycle to make eyebrow-raising comments on the trail — politicians got the media's attention, and sometimes ended up in hot water, for a whole host of off-the-cuff remarks.

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Stacey Abrams

Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was blasted online after comparing her and progressive Democrats' push to loosen voting laws to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's war with Russia during an appearance on the Daily Show in March.

"We are a stronger nation when we allow people to participate," Abrams said. "And if we ever doubted that ... the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine, President Zelensky said it, and I'm going to paraphrase him, probably poorly. He said this isn't a war on Ukraine. This is a war on democracy in Ukraine."

Lauren Boebert

In Colorado, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) turned heads in June after telling congregants at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt, Colorado, that she was "tired" of the whole pesky separation of church and state thing.

"It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does," the representative said.

The GOP firebrand added, "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it."

Boebert's "letter" comment is a reference to Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. Written in 1802, the author of the Declaration of Independence said that the First Amendment creates "a wall of separation between Church and State."

The Constitution's First Amendment also notes that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

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Madison Cawthorn

The year wasn't a good one for soon-to-be-ex-Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC). Cawthorn's star was on the rise among conservatives and the MAGA faithful, but it came crashing down after he said on a podcast that congressional colleagues were using drugs and throwing orgies.

"Being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 or 70, and I look at all these people, a lot of them that I've looked up to through my life — I've always paid attention to politics — then all of a sudden, you get invited. 'Oh, hey, we're going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes. You should come.' I'm, like, 'What did you just ask me to come to?' Then, you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy," the representative said.

The 26-year-old, first-term lawmaker who lost his reelection race this year also described frequent drug use.

"The fact there are some of the people leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you, and you're, like, 'This is wild.'"

Kari Lake

In Arizona, GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake hasn't met a camera she didn't like. The former television anchor, who has been parodied on Saturday Night Live and describes herself as "Donald Trump with softer edges," has made multiple headline-grabbing comments this year. After President Joe Biden made anti-Trump comments (he said that "MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic"), Lake hit back by comparing herself to Jesus.

"You can call us whatever you want, Joe. You can call us extremists. You can call us domestic terrorists. You know who else was called a lot of names his whole life? Jesus. He never stopped. He never stopped. They called him names right up until his death. So, why should we care what Joe Biden thinks of us?"

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Don Bolduc

In New Hampshire, GOP Senate candidate Don Bolduc said that students at a high school had identified as "furries and fuzzies" and used litter boxes funded by the school.

Other candidates who also supported the "furry" theory on the campaign trail included Texas state Rep. Michelle Evans and Nebraska state Rep. Bruce Bostelman.