Trump will face a very different Georgia with Wednesday’s visit

07/15/2020 Business, Sports


When President Donald Trump last visited Atlanta in March, he was at the top of the polls after the failed Democrat-led push to kick him out of office and try to calm nervous nerves about the growing coronavirus outbreak.

He faces a very different political reality when he arrives at a UPS facility near the Atlanta airport on Wednesday to discuss transportation initiatives, and appears alongside Georgia Republicans in hopes of a recovery before November.

Polls show him shoulder to shoulder with Joe Biden, margins so narrow that his campaign featured a seven-figure ad purchase this summer to defend a state that Republicans have carried out in every presidential vote since 1996.

Nervous groups aligned with Republicans have already set aside more than $ 22 million for ads to protect the two Republican-controlled seats in the United States Senate, aware that enthusiastic Democrats broke participation records during the month’s primaries. past.

And Trump faces criticism of his approach to the coronavirus pandemic, which has reached new heights in Georgia and caused a growing gap between state and local officials on how to respond.

The protest movement demanding racial justice is also growing, prompting Democrats to call for more radical changes to combat structural inequalities and for Republicans to emphasize a law enforcement message and warn of threats to public safety.

Trump’s visit coincides with pressure on Biden’s campaign to expand the 2020 battlefield map beyond the Rust Belt that Hillary Clinton lost four years ago, in addition to other perennial states like Florida and North Carolina. That larger map would include Georgia and its 16 Electoral College votes.

That would mean millions of dollars pumping the state party’s infrastructure, and more resources for candidates who cast their ballots in defiance of US Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, and with the goal of changing a suburban seat in the United States House. and take control of the Georgia House.

And if Biden challenges the state, which Trump carried by 5 percentage points in 2016, he will face an entrenched Republican opponent. Trump spokeswoman Savannah Viar said the president's campaign in Georgia has more than 100 employees and has made about 4 million voter contacts in this cycle.

Viar launched the 2020 election as a choice between "security, a return to a booming economy, and American greatness, or the Democrats' promise of anarchy, higher taxes, and job losses."

"Georgia Republicans have been on the ground since 2016 and are more prepared than ever for the November elections," he added. "Georgia is the country of Trump, and we intend to keep it that way."

Anvil or active?

Still, the fact that Georgia is not a sure thing for Republicans has had senior officials ringing the bell for years. Perdue, meanwhile, has long warned of the tight midterm in 2018 as a "wake up call." And the Trump administration has paid more attention to Georgia in recent months.

It's a primary reason Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Atlanta twice in a week in May to tout the state's coronavirus response, and explains why Trump chose the city to highlight his transportation agenda.

The Wednesday afternoon event, scheduled for the UPS airport hub in Hapeville, will feature the introduction of a new process that the White House says will accelerate environmental reviews of roads, bridges and highway projects, such as an expansion of I-75.

Although there is no raucous meeting scheduled, politics will inevitably share the spotlight. The Republican dispute between Loeffler and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who are vying for Trump's favor in the November special election for his seat, will be on display as both Republicans join the president.

Protesters and supporters are expected to line up Trump's route. And his return to Georgia will evoke reminders of his confrontation with Governor Brian Kemp, who sparked the president's anger when he began removing coronavirus restrictions in April. Trump later reversed himself and praised Georgia's approach.

The Trump support dispute underscores a dynamic at play in Georgia and other Republican-controlled states, since 2016: Even as he fights in polls between moderates and independents, Trump has a very high approval rating among Georgia Republicans.

Democrats believe Trump will be a political anvil weighing the rest of the Republican ticket.

Since their last visit, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the June primaries and the party avoided what could have been detrimental to the August second round in two of the year's biggest races: the competition against Perdue and one race in the United States House of Representatives for a Gwinnett County district that is one of the party's main goals this year.

Ahead of Trump's visit, the Abrams Fair Fight group released a long note outlining demographic trends in Georgia that underscore Democratic hopes of bringing the state to the first time since 1992.

More black Georgians voted in the 2020 primaries than in the 2008 contest with Barack Obama on the ballot. And the electorate in Georgia continues to grow more diverse. Of the approximately 750,000 Georgians who have registered to vote since 2018, about half are voters of color and 45% are under the age of 30. Those demographic blocs, polls consistently show, tend to back Democrats.

The anti-Trump message is clear in the Democratic messages. When he ran for a suburban seat in the US House of Representatives in 2017, Jon Ossoff avoided fighting with Trump at the end of his campaign.

Now the Democratic candidate to challenge Perdue, Ossoff has put the president's close ties to the senator at the center of his November argument.

"Georgia hospitalizations are skyrocketing, thousands of people have died, millions of Georgians need quick economic relief and, instead of coming here with a plan, Trump's photo shoot is more than just a president who denies and is out control, "Ossoff said.

Republicans are not running away from the White House. Georgia's top Republican candidates attacked the Black Lives Matter movement, blamed Democratic leaders for the protests that turned violent, and echoed Trump's pro-police mantra.

Nancy Couch, a Republican activist, predicted that the message will generate dividends for the Trump campaign in suburban areas like Cobb County, which Republicans lost in 2016 for the first time since Jimmy Carter's presidency.

“I'm amazed at how many women I talk to who are as excited as I am. He is taking the lead on matters of public order, and he is listening to companies because of his experience in the private sector, "he said." Our security is the most important thing for citizens, and Trump recognizes it. "