Georgia remains a battleground state for Harris vs. Trump

Republicans, who still control Georgia’s state government, are hoping that Biden’s lagging popularity and concern over higher consumer prices and immigration would transfer to Harris in the historically conservative state.

But they concede a recent groundswell of support for the expected Democratic candidate has made the political landscape suddenly look much closer to 2020 – when Biden won by about 0.25 percentage points — than when Trump was riding high after the Republican National Convention and surviving an assassination attempt.

The Harris campaign and Georgia Democratic officials have 24 offices across the state, including two added last weekend in metro Atlanta. Trump and the Republican National Committee opened their first Georgia offices only recently.

Democrats are betting that a combination of high turnout among traditional, core Democratic constituencies, as well as a strong showing in the suburbs and small pickups elsewhere will be enough for Harris to carry Georgia. That approach was on display at the weekend office openings.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said in a recent interview that the best GOP campaigns can win comfortably in Georgia but bad efforts — combined with strong Democratic campaigns — lose. Kemp, for example, won reelection by 7.5 percentage points in 2022 over national Democratic star Stacey Abrams. Yet in the same election cycle, Georgians reelected Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock over his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, who was endorsed by Trump.

In recent elections, Democrats have held wide advantages in the core of metro Atlanta. The party also performed well in Columbus and Savannah, as well as some rural, majority-Black counties. But Republicans dominated in other rural areas, small towns and small cities –- where Trump has held multiple rallies in recent years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.