ATLANTA – Former president donald trump returns on Saturday to Georgia, which he lost four years ago, to campaign in a state that both Democrats and Republicans consider once again to be available.
Trump’s event at 5 p.m. EDT alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, comes just days after the vice president’s Kamala Harris brought together thousands of people in the same basketball arena at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Both parties are concentrated in Georgia, a country Sun Belt Battlefield that just two weeks ago, Democrats signaled they would set aside in favor of a stronger focus on Midwest “blue wall” states. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign and support Harris fueled Democratic hopes for an expanded electoral map.
“The momentum in this race is shifting,” Harris told a lively and noisy crowd on Tuesday. “And there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling this.”
Biden beat Trump in the state by 11,779 votes in 2020. Trump held down Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to change the result. Trump was later indicted in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the election, but the case remains on hold while the courts rule whether the Fulton County District Attorney can continue to process it.
In announcing Saturday’s rally, the Trump campaign accused Harris of costing Georgians money due to inflation and higher gas prices, which have risen from pandemic-era lows at the end of the Trump administration. The campaign also highlighted the case of Laken Riley, a nursing student from the state who was killed while jogging in a park on February 22. was indicted on murder charges in his death.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly labeled Harris the current administration’s “border czar,” a reference to its mission by leading White House efforts about migration.
But in recent days, Trump launched false attacks about Harris’ race and suggested she misled voters about her identity. Harris has stated for years in public life that she is Black and Indian American.
At her rally in Atlanta, Harris called Trump and Vance “complete strangers” – a banner of messages seized upon by many other Democrats lately — and mocked Trump for dithering over whether he would attend the next debate, currently in the books for September 10 on ABC.
Previously saying he would debate HarrisTrump has more recently questioned the value of a meeting, calling host network ABC News “fake news,” saying he will “probably” debate Harris but that he “could also argue not to.”
The fact that both Harris and Trump have focused resources on Georgia underscores the state’s renewed importance to both parties in November. Going to Atlanta puts Trump in the state’s largest media market, including suburbs and suburbs that were traditional Republican strongholds but have become more competitive as they have diversified and grown in population.
In a strategy memo released after Biden left the race, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon — who held the same position as Biden — reaffirmed the importance of beating the traditional blue wall Democratic trio of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but also argued that Harris’ top of the ticket “opens up more persuadable voters” and described them as “disproportionately black, Latino and under 30” in places like Georgia.
Next week, along with her eventual running mate, Harris plans to visit that Midwestern trifecta, along with North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. On Friday, she will make another stop in Georgia.
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Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina. Barrow can be reached in and Kinnard can be contacted at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
