Trump sets up head-to-head Harris comparison with rally venue decision

Former President Donald Trump is set to host a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, this week, visiting the same venue Vice President Kamala Harris did on Tuesday, as both campaigns try to make the case Georgia is in their court. 

The Harris campaign filled Georgia State University’s Convocation Center with more than 10,000 attendees Tuesday night and featured Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), as well as rappers Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion. Harris’s candidacy in the wake of President Joe Biden exiting the race has created a renewed sense of hope among Democrats in the state.

This weekend, Trump’s campaign is expected to host a rally in the same venue. Hosting both campaign stops in the same venue gives both campaigns a moment to be compared in terms of optics and the number of people in attendance. 

Georgia is one of several battleground states this election cycle. Harris is polling just 2 points below Trump, with Harris gaining 46% to Trump’s 48%, according to a recent Hill/Emerson College poll. It’s a state Biden narrowly flipped by a little more than 11,000 votes, marking the first time Georgia voted for a Democrat for president since 1992.

While Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) previously said he believed Georgia was not in play and would be red in November, he is warning Republicans to be cautiously optimistic about the state. 

“I do not think Republicans need to be getting overconfident right now,” Kemp said during the Republican National Convention.

Democrats have a renewed sense of optimism in the Peach State with Harris presumably at the top of the ticket.

“I have not seen this much excitement amongst the Democratic base and Democratic coalition since Barack Obama,” Tharon Johnson, an Atlanta-based political strategist who has worked for Democratic candidates in the state, told the Wall Street Journal. “This is the most excitement we’ve felt in Georgia over the last decade.” 

In recent elections, Democrats have held large advantages in Atlanta, as well as Columbus and Savannah, and some rural counties with majority-black populations. Republicans continue to dominate rural populations and small cities in the state.

Democrats have 24 campaign offices across the state, recently opening two in Atlanta. The Trump campaign recently opened its first office in Georgia. 

“Some days I feel sorry for Republicans because they’ve got to figure out how to run a criminal against a prosecutor,” Warnock said during Harris’s campaign stop. “Kamala Harris is getting ready to prosecute the case. The American people are the jury, and we’re going to get the verdict right.”