Herschel Walker’s mother is speaking out against a claim that her son has made on the campaign trail. Herschel announced at a campaign event at the University of Georgia in January that he had just found out that he is “40 percent Native American.” He said the information came from his mother.

Since January, Walker has repeated this claim several times, sometimes a little differently, but always saying he just found out about this from his mother. HuffPost (I know) has been covering Walker’s talk about his ancestry. With less than a month to the November midterm election, it is one more story about a Walker family member speaking out against the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia.

HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reported that Walker said he had just learned his mom is “a big part Native American” at one campaign event in May, described himself as “other” and said he found out “a year and a half ago” at another May event, and at a south Georgia meet-and-greet the same month claimed he is “proud to be Black but… I may not be Black” because he had just learned “my mother is part Native American.” At a June 20 campaign event in College Park, he made similar claims but added that he made the discovery using a 23andMe ancestry test. “I don’t care what color you are,” Walker said after stating he wanted to “acknowledge all of my family.”

His latest, boldest announcement came at a campaign event last month, but this time he claimed his grandmother was “full-blood Cherokee.”

“My mom just told me… so I’m Native American. I was like, ‘Oh, hello,’” he said, describing himself as a “super mutt.” Speaking on stage to his supporters at the Sept. 28 event in Forsyth, he said: “I don’t know what I am, but this was so funny. This was so funny. I said, ‘Mom, why you never said anything to us?’ She said, ‘Back in my days, a lot of the Native Americans were treated worse than Blacks.’”

Recently, Walker’s 23 year old son, Christian, a conservative Trump supporter, washed his hands of his father’s campaign as more details emerge from Walker’s past girlfriend’s abortion and the fact that it appears that he paid for it, despite running on an anti-abortion platform. Perhaps that emboldened Walker’s mom, Christine, to speak up about the Native American ancestry story. So far, the Walker campaign has not provided any proof of his claim.

Cherokee Nation, the largest of three recognized tribes in the U.S., told HuffPost it had no record of Walker in its database. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Walker’s mother, Christine, spoke to the site and said “she has no idea if an immediate ancestor was full-blooded Cherokee.”

She said she grew up hearing stories about her father’s mother being “kin” to the tribe, clarifying that “her grandmother was believed to be related to Cherokee peoples in some way, but she didn’t know how.” She told HuffPost that “I don’t know how far back” the family’s Cherokee heritage went. “See, my grandmother, she passed when I was quite young. I don’t know too much about how she was connected.”

Yikes. That’s got some strong Elizabeth Warren vibes, doesn’t it? Her original claim was that she always heard from her mother that she had high cheekbones because of some Native American connection in her ancestry. As crazy as that sounded when she was questioned on the campaign trail about it, she apparently was saying it because that was family folklore. Or, with a more cynical eye, she’s a pathological liar who fabricated a story to get the benefits of such a minority connection, like her employment at Harvard and scholarship opportunities she received by claiming to be of a minority. As we all always suspected, Warren is whiter than white and the alleged Native American ancestry was all a hoax. Will critics of Walker demand he take a DNA test, as Warren did, to prove his claim?

This is such a rookie mistake, it makes me shake my head. It’s an unforced error on Walker’s part. Why bring up such an issue in the campaign in the first place? Focus on the issues. It doesn’t matter if he has Native American ancestry somewhere in the family tree, no one cares. Voters want to know what he’s going to do to help make their lives better. It can’t be said enough to Republicans running for office in this cycle – stick to the everyday issues that voters are worried about. Focus, focus, focus. Walker’s race against Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock, a flawed candidate in his own right, is rated as a toss-up, even after the abortion story broke. Pro-life groups are sticking with him and continuing to contribute to his campaign in a big way. Democrats and their cohorts in the media are amazed. Republican voters are not.

Real Clear Politics averaging has Warnock up by 3.3 points and shows the race as a toss-up. Walker can very likely win this race. The Georgia Senate race is one that is important to win so that the red wave can wash over the Senate and bring in a Republican majority. All eyes are on Georgia as the Democrats and media throw everything they can to take down Walker. It isn’t working. Republican voters are sticking with him. The key will be to make sure they get out and vote on election day.

The one and only scheduled debate between Walker and Warnock is tonight. Stay tuned and pass the popcorn.