The big show in Atlanta may be Thursday evening, but the days leading up to the first presidential debate have been filled with a flurry of campaign events that put on display how each side plans to win a state that narrowly backed President Joe Biden in 2020.
On the Democratic side, Republicans took centerstage on the eve of the debate and issued dire warnings about the threat to democracy if former President Donald Trump is put back in the White House.
A press conference held at the state Capitol Wednesday featured former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former Illinois GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who have both endorsed Biden, and a former police officer, Harry Dunn, who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Kinzinger started his remarks by observing that he was standing where a top state election official stood in 2020 when he warned a national TV audience that “it has all gone too far” and that someone was going to get hurt or worse.
Before the fallout of the 2020 election, Kinzinger said he would have never imagined endorsing a Democratic presidential candidate. But he said the stakes are too high and that he would work in whatever role needed to defeat Trump. He endorsed Biden in a video Wednesday.
“I want to make sure that Republicans particularly understand you don’t have to agree with everything Joe Biden says. You probably don’t agree with everything Donald Trump says, and by the way, you probably don’t agree with everything your spouse says, but this is about defending the greatest country in the world,” Kinzinger said in Atlanta Wednesday.
Trump’s campaign held an Atlanta event targeting Black voters – as both campaigns court Black voters, particularly Black men – and welcomed the Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley to Alpharetta as part of the national party’s Protect the Vote Tour.
Trump and Biden will face off for 90 minutes starting at 9 p.m. Thursday at CNN’s debate in Atlanta. Holding the year’s first presidential debate in Georgia is significant in itself, said University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock.
“I think probably the reason that Biden wanted it in Georgia – and it looks like all the terms of this debate were set by Biden – is because Georgia is still being viewed as a toss-up state,” Bullock said. “And so Biden is probably figuring that he needs or is trying to encourage support, particularly in the Black community, and by bringing this to Georgia, he recognizes that people are going to give it more attention than if it were in some other state.”
Biden won Georgia in 2020 by about 12,000 votes.
Whatley said the GOP’s strategy for winning back the presidency will be all about turning out Republican-leaning voters who might not otherwise show up and ensuring the integrity of the voting process.
“We need to have Republicans, observers, and attorneys in the room anytime a vote is being cast or a vote is being counted. There is simply no substitute for it. I would rather have a police car parked in front of a storefront window than call them after a rocket’s thrown through. Right? It is absolutely critical for us. That’s what Protect the Vote is all about.”
The RNC hopes to recruit 100,000 volunteers to monitor polling places on Election Day to keep an eye out for election fraud. Democrats worry they could instead intimidate voters away from casting ballots.
Trump maintains that the 2020 election was stolen from him despite multiple investigations and lawsuits turning up no evidence of widespread fraud in any state. Biden’s Georgia victory was upheld after three counts, including one by hand.
Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon praised the election rule changes passed into the law by the state legislature since 2020, but said volunteers and lawyers are still needed to prevent funny business.
“The bills that passed this session were vitally important, but those bills are only as good as the enforcement mechanism,” he said. “And that’s why it’s so important for us to recruit volunteer attorneys as well as have retained counsel to make sure that the very good laws that have been passed by the General Assembly are observed in this year’s election.”
“It’s having that kind of coverage, particularly in the counties that we’re primarily concerned with. Very large, kind of top 20 counties around the state. We want to make sure that we’ve got our people in place, that they’re monitoring what happens and that we’re able to respond in real time.”
Analysts credited Trump’s insistence that he was a victim of election fraud with discouraging Republicans from turning out in the 2020 Senate runoffs, helping Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff become Georgia senators.
Whatley said Trump will contrast his record with Biden’s during Thursday’s debate and outline his vision for the future.
He suggested Trump will not focus on 2020, which some Republicans say could put off moderate or swing voters.
“What we’re expecting the president to do is tell people what he’s going to do for the next four years and how it is going to make America a better place,” he said.
Trump continues to hold a slight lead over Biden in the polls in Georgia. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that 43% of respondents said they would vote for Trump, 38% for Biden and 9% for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who is not officially on the ballot in Georgia yet.
About 8% of Georgians surveyed said they are undecided.
Duncan, who endorsed Biden last month, argued Wednesday that disaffected Republicans will be the ones who decide the election this year. He said the goal is to give “air cover” to Republicans who do not want to vote for Trump.
“I’m laser focused on the 10% that are Republicans that cannot stand Donald Trump and see him for what he is, and that’s a fraud,” Duncan told reporters Wednesday. “And they’re having problems voting for Democrats just because history tells us we shouldn’t do that, right? We shouldn’t cross over.
“This isn’t about becoming a Democrat. This is about doing the right thing as a Republican and voting for Joe Biden, giving us that four-year reset opportunity to create a GOP 2.0,” he said.
About 78,000 Georgians – or about 13% of those who cast a GOP ballot in Georgia’s March presidential primary – voted for Nikki Haley, who had dropped out of the race by the time election day arrived in Georgia. Haley has said she would vote for Trump, but she has not endorsed the presumed GOP nominee.
Duncan called the decision to endorse Biden an “easy” one, citing threats he received in the wake of the 2020 election that he argues Trump could have ended with a tweet. To Duncan, it is a matter of choosing “a decent man over a criminal.”
Trump was convicted of 34 felonies last month in New York and has three other felony prosecutions against him pending, including two related to his efforts to overturn his loss in 2020 that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. One of the cases is pending in Fulton County.
The one-term lieutenant governor became a vocal critic of Trump after the 2020 election. Before presiding over the state Senate, he represented a conservative district in the House. He said Wednesday was his first time returning to the state Capitol since packing up his office.
Duncan said it’s important for Biden to continue touting the strengths of the economy while acknowledging the economic pains many Americans feel. Concerns about the economy continue to dominate this year’s election.
“Some people wake up today and it’s the worst economy they’ve ever faced. They can’t afford rent or houses or groceries. Some are waking up in the greatest economy ever because their houses are worth more and their 401ks are worth more. So being sensitive to talk to both parts of that,” Duncan said.
Whatley said people of all races struggling to make ends meet are exactly who the Georgia GOP will be reaching out to in the just over 130 days until the election.
“We also are now seeing thousands upon thousands of people who are leaving the Democratic Party from groups that have traditionally not been supported or courted by the Republican Party. Black voters, Hispanic voters, Asian American voters,” he said.
“And why are we having those conversations with those types of voters? Because they are affected by everything that Joe Biden has unleashed on America,” he added. “They are families who are feeling the pinch of 25% higher grocery prices and 55% higher gasoline prices.”
The AJC poll found that 70% of Black Georgia voters said they plan to vote for Biden in 2024, down from 88% in 2020. Black people make up about a third of eligible voters in Georgia, according to Pew Research, and could help swing the close election.
The Trump campaign’s pre-debate blitz included events they hope will help woo Black voters, including stops Wednesday at a Black-owned barbershop in Atlanta for a Black business roundtable and at a Fairburn cigar bar for a discussion on the Black male vote.
Both events were set to feature prominent Black conservatives including Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, Texas Congressman Wesley Hunt and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.
Democrats held a string of events taking aim at Trump’s record as president. An event led by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff Tuesday compared the two rivals’ records when it comes to supporting minority-owned small businesses. And on Monday, which was the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, TV host, writer and executive producer Padma Lakshmi and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms blasted Trump for his role in ending the federal right to an abortion.
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