ATLANTA — Donald Trump’s midterm campaign blitz arrives in Georgia Friday for a rally with top Republican candidates in a state that has long been the epicenter of the president’s false claims of election fraud.
In Dalton, the population center of conservative northwest Georgia, Asset will appear with Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson as part of the White House’s efforts to boost Republican enthusiasm in an election that could reshape the final years of Trump’s second presidency.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, greatest messenger and unparalleled motivator for the Republican Party,” said White House spokesman Davis Ingle.
Yet, unlike some of Trump’s speeches recent trips For solidly Republican states – Alabama, Montana, Tennessee – Georgia is a crucial battleground. That means Jackson, a billionaire businessman, and Collins, a two-term congressman, need more than Trump stalwarts to defeat their respective Democratic opponents, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Sen. Jon Ossoff.
“I’m surprised that Georgia Republicans want the president here,” Ossoff said. “The president’s coming to town reminds Georgians that Donald Trump and Mike Collins” pushed policies that have “driven the cost of groceries, fuel and health care to unprecedented levels.”
Collins spokesman Meyer Siegfried said the congressman welcomed the president’s attention. But he also emphasized that Collins is a “bipartisan workhorse who will work with anyone,” while adding that “Ossoff hates Trump more than he loves our state.”
Bottoms also seemed excited about Trump’s visit.
“When Donald Trump says he wants people to imagine he’s on the ballot, I’m asking the people of Georgia exactly that,” she said, noting Jackson’s promise to be Trump’s “favorite governor.”
The risks are evident even in the heavily Republican region of Georgia, where the president will visit. Voters sent Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally, to Congress before she broke with the president and resigned. Trump won the district by about 37 points in 2024 and Greene by 29. special election To replace Greene, Republican Rep. Clay Fuller won by 12 points.
Republican candidates ran separately
The Dalton event will be the first time this fall that Jackson and Collins will perform at the same venue. That contrasts with Ossoff and Bottoms holding joint rallies across Georgia, with the next one planned for Saturday in Cobb County, outside Atlanta.
Collins has struggled with anemic fundraising and controversies that leave even Republicans question its viability against Ossoff. Jackson focused on sharing the stage with other Republican candidates and statewide party leaders, and none mentioned Collins.
“It was not negligence,” former Trump Agriculture Secretary and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said after a rally. “I think it was really about honoring a Rick Jackson event and focusing on his election for governor.”
Asked about the joint gathering, a Jackson spokesperson said only: “Rick will be in Dalton and looks forward to reminding Georgia voters that bad mayors do not make good governors.” »
Trump was last in Dalton on January 4, 2021, the day before Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won a simultaneous Senate runoff election. He had already lost the presidential campaign to Joe Biden but was not willing to accept it.
“We can’t lose Georgia. There’s no way,” Trump said that day. “It was a rigged election, but we’re still fighting through it.”
Election denial persists in Georgia
Collins was elected to Congress in 2022, and he echoed Trump’s lies about 2020. He refused to renounce those views this week when Ossoff pressed him during a debate. “There was a lot of doubt in this election. Yes, Joe Biden was the president,” Collins said, without saying Biden was duly elected.
Asset approved Collins days before his June runoff victory over former football coach Derek Dooley. In announcing his decision, Trump complained that Dooley had acknowledged that Biden had been legitimately elected.
Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t endorse Collins until September, and he warned voters during the primary that the congressman could not win in November.
Trump only endorsed Jackson after he won the Republican primary runoff against the president’s original pick, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who had participated in Trump’s effort to overturn Biden’s victory. The president cited Jones’ loyalty in his approval.
Jackson doesn’t regularly mention Trump as he did during the primary campaign, when the first-time candidate compared his business experience to Trump’s. He’s more likely to compare himself to Kemp in recent weeks.
But the governor will not be with his fellow Republicans on Friday, according to his top political adviser.
“He has a family obligation that day,” Cody Hall said.
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