More than 35,000 Georgians have volunteered for the Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris campaign since she launched her bid after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. Outside the Atlanta metro, there are 50 full-time staffers across seven offices in South Georgia, according to campaign stats.
Harris has also shrunk the polling deficit Biden faced in Georgia, according to New York Times polling averages. Those averages showed Republican nominee Donald Trump with a 7-percentage-point lead, but Harris has shrunk that margin to 3 points, a gap that is within the margin of error for most polls.
“The new team being in for Democrats is making quite a difference in this state,” said University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock III, an expert in Southern politics, in an interview earlier this month.
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Harris’s visit this week was a follow-up to a commitment made in early August after Tropical Storm Debby postponed a scheduled visit to Savannah. This week’s trip marks the second time Harris has been in Savannah this year after visiting for an abortion-rights rally in February. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said two visits from a Vice President in a six-month span is unprecedented in the city’s 291-year history.
Bullock, the UGA professor, said that Georgia was largely untouched by presidential nominees for years dating back to the early 1990s. It wasn’t until 2020, when Georgia firmly resurfaced as a battleground, that the state saw visits beyond just campaign surrogates.
“If anyone wonders ‘what is Georgia’s perceived role in presidential elections?’ Yeah, we are a major player,” Bullock said.
Beyond Atlanta
Democratic presidential campaigning in Georgia has historically focused on the Atlanta metro area. In Savannah, Harris’s visit will mark the first campaign event from a major nominee since Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the Savannah Civic Center in 1980. Jimmy Carter, who visited frequently while running for state senator and governor, made his most famous visit, when he stood on the bar at Pinkie Master’s, a year after he was sworn in as the 39th President of the United States.
Johnson knew early on in the Biden Administration that Savannah was on the radar of top Democratic officials, evidenced by a historic eight or nine visits from cabinet-level secretaries in the Biden Administration, he said. The Savannah mayor said at a campaign event before Biden dropped out that the city has received more investment from the current administration than any other in history.
Savannah’s top elected official credits the city’s recognition with three major factors: relationships, results and strategy. Savannah has received investments from Biden policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, making Savannah a showcase of “results.”
“Savannah has become a case study about how to effectively partner directly with the federal government to make things happen in the interest of our citizens,” Johnson said.
Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.
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Publish date : 2024-08-31 23:05:00
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