Vice President Kamala Harris is making a statement that Georgia is in play against Donald Trump as she makes it her first stop after last week’s Democratic convention
– Vice President Kamala Harris wakes up Thursday in this historic coastal city in Georgia, a crucial presidential election battleground that’s one of seven states that will likely determine the winner of her 2024 face off with former President Trump.
The vice president on Wednesday kicked off a two-day bus swing in southeastern Georgia, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visiting with faculty and students at a high school before stopping by a barbecue joint.
On Thursday, Harris and Walz will sit for their first major interview before the vice president holds what’s expected to be a large rally in Savannah.
By choosing the Peach State for her first campaign trail swing following last week’s Democratic National Convention, Harris is making a statement – that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election.
Georgia had long been a reliably red state in White House elections until President Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture the state.
Fast-forward to this year’s election, and Trump saw his slight edge in the polls in Georgia over Biden jump to a solid single-digit lead after the president’s disastrous performance in their one debate, a late June showdown in Atlanta.
But in the 5½ weeks since the vice president replaced her boss atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, polls indicate that it’s once again a margin-of-error race in the Peach State.
A Fox News poll conducted August 23-26 in Georgia and released on Wednesday indicated Harris with a razor-thin 50%-48% edge over Trump among registered voters. The most recent Fox News survey in Georgia before Biden dropped out of the race indicated Trump topping the president by six points, 51%-45%.
Georgia’s popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state’s very competitive.
« Certainly this is a battleground state », Gov. Brian Kemp emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday.
« I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia », Kemp said.
But he added that Georgia « should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November. »
So are the Democrats.
« The Georgia Democratic coordinated campaign is running the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with over 190 Democratic coordinated campaign staff in 24 coordinated offices across the state », the Harris campaign touted hours ahead of the vice president’s arrival in Savannah.
