Democrats urge University of Georgia football fans to ‘sack’ Trump

ATHENS – Bulldog fans tailgating before top-ranked University of Georgia’s home opener on Saturday won’t be able to avoid the November election.

That’s because the Democratic National Committee plans to fly a banner over UGA and Sanford Stadium during the four hours leading up to the 2 p.m. kickoff bashing former President Donald Trump.

The banner will read: “Bulldogs – Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025.”

But the stunt might as well serve as the latest reminder that football is fair game in Georgia politics.

Every two years, candidates and campaigns flock to Athens to capitalize on the tens of thousands of voters who spend their fall Saturdays on campus to take in the Southern gridiron tradition.

In 2014, then-state Sen. Jason Carter steered his campaign bus to Jacksonville in the final weeks of his Democratic bid for governor to wade amid fellow Bulldog devotees before the chaotic Georgia-Florida grudge match.

In 2016, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush brought his “SEC selfie tour” to Georgia games in Athens and Knoxville, Tenn. during his short-lived presidential bid.

In 2018, Georgia Democrats trolled Brian Kemp – a diehard Bulldog fan who still lives in Athens – with a banner proclaiming the Republican was secretly rooting for the hated Tennessee Volunteers.

And in 2022, Georgia football icon Herschel Walker tried to channel the excitement and energy around the team into his ill-fated U.S. Senate bid.

Democratic message focuses on Project 2025, the hefty policy blueprint from the conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for mass firing of federal workers, the end of several government agencies and new abortion limits.

Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, though he backs some of its proposals.