MILWAUKEE – The race for president entered a new phase as Republicans emerged from their nominating convention forged by a sense of unity while Democrats remained in crisis as a new round of defectors urged President Joe Biden to quit the race.

As pressure mounted on Biden, his campaign postponed a Tuesday rally in Georgia that had not yet been publicly confirmed, sending a memo to senior Democrats that it would be rescheduled as the president recovers from the coronavirus.

The GOP’s triumphant gala flipped the script on the event Republicans held eight years ago, when Donald Trump’s brutalist “I alone can fix it” outlook deepened concerns about his candidacy. Even Trump’s meandering, insult-ridden acceptance speech didn’t sour the GOP mood. He was in full command of his party.

Republicans treated the former president as a martyr-like figure for braving an assassination attempt and openly wondered whether Georgia would even be competitive in November as the campaign stretched for deep-blue targets like Virginia.

At the Georgia GOP’s headquarters at a lakefront Wisconsin resort, there was brimming confidence that Trump’s campaign need not bother with the arduous task of persuading swing voters when they believe turning out the GOP base alone could defeat Biden.

“I’ve never seen this type of energy or enthusiasm in Republican politics in Georgia before,” said GOP state Sen. Brandon Beach, a Trump ally who helped open four of his campaign offices. “And this momentum isn’t going away.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, put it this way: “For us on Donald Trump’s side, it’s not as much about who he’s running against. It’s just the mere fact that we need to turn out the vote.”

For Democrats, the tumultuous week marked a new nadir. Biden and his allies paused their campaign after last week’s attempt on Trump’s life left his supporters electrified by his defiant admonition to “fight, fight, fight.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

And a parade of influential Democrats has stepped up in a sophisticated pressure movement to force Biden out of the race, putting internal party tensions on full display at a moment when distracted voters are finally starting to focus on the race.

Biden has dug in deeper after his debate debacle in Atlanta sharpened concerns about his ability to serve. His attempts to reassure voters that he “just had a bad night” fell flat among some erstwhile allies. Aides say he could travel to Georgia in the coming days.

In Georgia, senior Democrats have maintained their support for the 81-year-old incumbent. Some dismiss the effort to shunt him as “family discussions” or internal drama, while others say they’ll support his reelection bid until he decides not to run.

Quentin Fulks, Biden’s Georgia-born deputy campaign manager, has been dispatched constantly by the campaign this month to refute speculation about Biden’s future.

“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket,” Fulks said in Milwaukee. “He is, and will be, the Democratic nominee.”

And Democrats have pressed to shift the narrative, whether it be new arguments, like the much-maligned Project 2025 arch-conservative blueprint, or traditional attacks against Trump’s role in undoing abortion rights protections.

Credit: TNS

“Thanks to Donald Trump, millions of women across the South have had their rights ripped away from them,” said Carol McDonald of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates at an event marking the two-year anniversary of Georgia’s anti-abortion law.

But it hasn’t quieted the concerns. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, her party’s most prominent Biden critic in Georgia, said she sees hypocrisy among colleagues who once castigated Republicans to put the country over the party.

“Now, for different reasons, but to the same end, it’s time for Democrats to look in the mirror and say the same thing to themselves.”

Overconfident?

Now Democrats are wrestling with the internal strife that Republicans confronted during Trump’s tumultuous first term in office. And it’s the GOP that’s closed ranks behind Trump, with his fiercest internal critics either exiled or quieted.

State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat, said the intraparty debate over Biden’s future is a sign of strength, and contrasted it disparagingly with the wholehearted Republican embrace of Trump.

Those divisions could deepen further if Biden is booted. Should the pressure campaign compel the president to withdraw, it could set up a nasty internal fight over whether Vice President Kamala Harris or another national figure should lead the ticket.

Dozens of Georgia delegates to the Democratic National Convention – who could play a decisive role if Biden drops out – told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in interviews they back Harris over alternatives.

And some elected officials warn of sharp backlash among the party’s most loyal constituency – Black voters – if the nation’s first Black female vice president is leapfrogged by a rival.

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

“If Joe Biden stands aside, we can’t just jump over Kamala Harris like she’s not there,” McLaurin said. “We can’t just let national polling or punditry give us something new and exciting.”

Republicans have egged on the Democratic rebellion. But they worry that a Trump misstep could realter a race that remains tight despite ground-shaking developments that would have upended past campaigns.

And they fear overconfidence will lead to complacency. As Gov. Brian Kemp noted at a Politico event, “four or five months is an eternity in politics – and a lot of things can happen.”

Martha Zoller, a conservative commentator who once ran for a north Georgia U.S. House seat, couldn’t help but highlight the midterm two years ago. In that campaign, GOP candidates swept every statewide race but one. Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victory still stings.

“Republicans are over the moon. But you’ve got to be wary of 2024 because of what happened in 2022. We were pretty buoyant then, too,” she said. “We can’t get overconfident.”