Trump, Harris campaign in Georgia as 1.3 million vote early

At rallies 15 miles apart, Harris and Trump urged their supporters to vote early, the visits underlining Georgia’s importance as one of seven swing states that will determine the presidency. 

On Saturday night, Harris told a crowd of about 11,000 perched on the lawn at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta, “If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too.”

Pitching herself as ushering in a “new and optimistic generation of leadership,” Harris also had backing from R&B star Usher, who has deep ties to Atlanta and sold out three shows in the city last week. On Sunday, Harris also spoke at a Sunday church service in Stonecrest and attended a “Souls to the Polls” event featuring Stevie Wonder to mark the first Sunday of early voting.

“A-T-L, we’ve got work to do to get this campaign across the finish line,” Usher said at the Saturday rally.

In Georgia, Harris needs to maximize turnout of Black voters who make up a large share of the electorate. Some polls have suggested Democrats’ support among Black men may have softened over recent elections, and Harris has been emphasizing proposals like tax right-offs for new entrepreneurs and down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

The campaign at the same time needs to retain and recruit Republicans and independents, especially in the Atlanta suburbs, who have soured on Trump and helped deliver Joe Biden’s Georgia win in 2020.

At the rally, Harris lambasted Trump for comments during a Fox News town hall when the anchor asked about a press conference featuring the family of Amber Thurman.

The 28 year-old woman died after doctors delayed providing a dilation and curettage in Georgia, where abortion has been tightly restricted since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. ProPublica reported that a state panel ruled her death preventable.

“He belittles their sorrow, making it about himself and his television ratings,” Harris said. “It is cruel. And listen, I promised Amber’s mother that we will always remember her story and speak her name.”

In the crowd, Thurman’s mother held up a picture of her daughter. 

The presidential race has a pronounced gender gap. Polls suggest Harris performing better than Trump with women, while the former president has more support among men. Set in the Atlanta suburbs and exurbs, the campaign hoped Trump’s swing could burnish his appeal among the women who have fled the GOP in recent years. Until recently, Trump has mostly held rallies in deeply Republican parts of the state to juice turnout of the irregular voters who became activated in the Trump era.

At the Fox News town hall taped in Cumming, Trump appeared in front of women mostly recruited by local Republican groups. One woman, Pamela, pressed the former president about abortion. 

“Women are entitled to do what they want to and need to do with their bodies, including their unborn,” she said. “That’s on them, regardless of the circumstance. Some are necessary to save their own lives. Why is the government involved in women’s basic rights?”

In a winding answer, Trump both praised the conservative Supreme Court majority for overturning Roe v. Wade, while also trying to assuage fears that abortion access and other reproductive care could be further restricted under a Trump presidency, as some of his allies have suggested.

“It’s going to be redone,” Trump said, referring to the strictest state abortion bans. “You’ll end up with the vote of the people. And some of them, I agree, they’re too tough, too tough.”

Later, during a late-night speech at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Trump painted a dark picture of a country plagued by crime and illegal immigration.

“We will not be invaded, we will not be occupied, we will not be conquered, we will defeat the enemy at all levels of combat,” Trump said. 

Throughout the speech, Trump veered from the campaign’s closing message, returning multiple times to an aside about Elon Musk and SpaceX, pondering what it would be like to be stuck in space.

He also again praised Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he attacked from a rally stage in Atlanta as recently as August. The two fell out after Kemp refused to help Trump overturn the 2020 election result, but reached a truce when they shook hands after surveying hurricane damage last month.

Outside the rally, friends Dorie Walters and Tina McKay said they were thrilled to see Trump in person for the first time. Both said the stakes of the election are high – from the tangible, like having enough savings to leave behind for their children, to feeling like their rights were being eroded.

“I don’t care if my president is joyful,” Walters said. “I want someone who is going to stand up for us and defend our country.”

While McKay describes herself as pro-life, she said she thinks Georgia’s roughly six-week abortion ban may be too tight. But she says that is by no means driving her vote.

“That’s the only thing Democrats are really running on,” McKay said. “How about our economy? How about our safety? How about our borders?”

J. Williams and Pamela White, sitting in green lawn chairs waiting to see Harris at Lakewood Amphitheatre, also see a lot riding on this election. 

“Honestly, I think this is a pretty significant point in our history,” Williams said. 

Williams is battling cancer and recently lost her health insurance. She worries what may happen if insurers could again deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

“I think it’s important to live in a country where I don’t fear for my life because I can’t afford healthcare,” she said.

White, 58, said she never thought she would see a woman in the Oval Office, but she feels like this could be the time.

“I’m truly optimistic,” White said. “However I do in the back of my mind have just a little ounce of ‘What if we don’t do it?’ But 90% of me feels like people are going to do the right thing.”