here's cnn's diane gallagher. >> reporter: even before the sun rises the hottest topic in town comes herschel because he's all business. >> reporter: for more than 40 years the town has been talking of herschel walker. he has a street, a park, a high school field name after him here. >> i was the number one fan when he played football. >> from the university of georgia, herschel walker. >> reporter: in the self-proclaimed prendalist town in georgia it's easy to find support for walker's senate campaign. nearly 70% of johnson county voted for republican donald trump in the 2020 presidential election. >> herschel's not going to back down. he's a fighter. >> i've been a lot of places, but in wrightsville i learned important lessons. >> reporter: on the trail walker is clear to mention his wrightsville routes. >> he has done camps for youth here, for football. >> reporter: but not everyone in this rural 3,500-person town is cheering him on. >> but most of the people -- most the people in johnston county don't think he's the right person to be running for senate. >> i hope we really do. >

diane gallagher just attended one of walker's events in dawsonville, georgia. what's driving so many out early this year? >> reporter: it may be the fact that people are so engaged. according to the secretary of state's office, again, that 1 million ballots cast already, that's in person early voting and voting by mail in the second week, talking about records. this looks more on par with a presidential cycle than it does a midterm election. even the secretary of state's office talking about just how astounding this year is already compared to 2018. >> in fact as we stand here today, we have crossed the threshold of 1 million voters. to put that into perspective, at this point in the last midterm in 2018, we stood at about 590,000 votes. that is nearly a 70% increase, comparing apples to apples. >> reporter: the secretary of state also discussing the climate around voting for the past two years, talking about disinformation, warning people to be on the lookout for that, and also discussing the way that the office is trying to protect poll workers in the threats

cnn's diane gallagher joins us now live.t allegation and walker's reaction to it. >> reporter: so jake, initially to that first original report by the daily beast, walker said he had no idea who the woman could be. he didn't just deny it. and of course when the daily beast followed up on wednesday with their separate report she said that seemed an unlikely defense to her because she claims that she is one of the mothers of one of herschel walker's sons. now, he had his very first open press event today here in wadley, georgia since those allegations have come out. he spoke to predominantly employees at a lumber yard. and after going through his stump speech where he mostly talked about his football career and some of his best career, some of his faith a little bit, and then a story of redemption, he took some questions from reporters. and look, i asked him, have you reached out to any of your four children's mothers? and this is what he said. >> have you reached out to any of the mothers of your children? >> no. >> to ask --

diane gallagher is outside. the debate is ongoing.pen and yet here we are, it's happening. what's going on right now? >> reporter: you're right, erin. monday early voting goes on. they're talking about the gun violence problem in the state of georgia, but it really has been almost a cornucopia of topics during the debate. the allegations that you mentioned, one of the moderators did address the republican candidate, herschel walker, asking him to explain the circumstances around the allegations. he said once again as he has for the past two weeks that it was a lie and went on to say he felt he would protect life as a senator, referring to his position on abortion. he is against abortion access and abortion rights saying he supports the so-called heartbeat bill here in the state of georgia. now, look, if you were to ask if there was a third person in the room, you might think there was because joe biden's name has been mentioned almost as much as the democratic incouple dent, senator raphael warnock. he's trying to play this as he is t

diane gallagher is in savannah, georgia where this debate is happening tonight.in georgia starts next week. this could be a headache or break moment. >> reporter: it really could. on monday georgians began going to the polls this is consequential for both men. it may be the only time we see them face-to-face tonight in that building behind me. look, i would anticipate we'll hear about the allegations that have been swirling around herschel walker especially for the past two weeks. i think the question is how much either candidate is going to engage in those. now, look, walker has flatly denied that he paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion or encouraged her to terminate the pregnancy that later resulted in their son. but warnock for his part, the senator has not engaged really in any sort of conversations or even really directly answered questions about specific allegations dealing with walker's personal life or past. now, look, the republican you mentioned, this is his debate debut. he's a political rookie here but his team is been diligently been preparing him fo