SAVANNAH — Former President Donald Trump is returning to Georgia on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two months with a campaign stop in Savannah as he tries to slow Vice President Kamala Harris’ momentum in a critical battleground state.
Trump’s event at 1 p.m. will be his first in the state since an Aug. 3 rally at Georgia State University’s arena in downtown Atlanta where he reopened raw wounds within the GOP with unprovoked broadsides against Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife, Marty.
Though Kemp has since worked to broker a new truce, Trump’s Savannah event will not feature an on-stage reconciliation between the two. The governor will be in Pennsylvania on Tuesday for a long-planned trip to stump for U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick.
Trump’s visit comes amid new efforts to unify Republicans and energize middle-of-the-road voters behind his bid to recapture Georgia four years after Joe Biden flipped the state by fewer than 12,000 votes.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released last week shows Trump with overwhelming support among Republican voters but deeper struggles among independents crucial to his campaign. About one-third back his bid, compared with roughly half who support Harris.
The race is increasingly narrowing to Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and a few other political battlegrounds.
Harris, who delivered an impassioned speech about abortion rights Friday in Cobb County, challenged Trump to return to Atlanta on Oct. 23 for a second showdown following their September debate in Philadelphia. He has so far declined.
Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, scheduled a pair of stops in Macon and Flowery Branch for Thursday. And Trump is expected to attend the Georgia-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa.
At Trump’s last campaign stop in Georgia, he pummeled the Kemps with attacks so scathing that local GOP officials worried aloud they risked his November chances. Kemp responded by saying “leave my family out of it,” but he remained publicly supportive of Trump.
Trump blamed Kemp for his narrow 2020 defeat in Georgia, when he fell short in trying to pressure the governor to call a special legislative session to overturn the results. After Kemp refused, Trump recruited former U.S. Sen. David Perdue to challenge him in the 2022 GOP primary. Kemp scored a crushing win.
Since then, Trump and Kemp appear to have patched up the lingering one-sided feud. The governor has been eager to put their personal differences behind him as he prepares for a potential run for the U.S. Senate in 2026 or president in 2028.
And senior Republicans have urged Trump to set aside his animus toward the governor. Among them is Vance, who peppered Kemp with praise at the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual dinner this month, calling him “incredible, patriotic and very effective.”
Trump’s last appearance in Georgia was also notable for a different reason: He lauded a trio of State Election Board members who back rule changes supported by his campaign as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
The board remains in the spotlight for approving election policies just weeks before the election that critics say could delay the reporting of results, undermine confidence in the voting system and set the stage for pro-Trump challenges if he loses.
The visit comes less than a month after Harris became the rare Democratic presidential candidate to swing through South Georgia. Her visit included an appearance at a high school in Hinesville, a coastal Democratic stronghold, as well as a high-energy rally at Savannah’s Enmarket Arena.
