Georgia is at the white-hot center of the White House race. But some of the state’s top politicians have also hit the road as the election nears, bringing the battle-tested messages they sharpened in Georgia to other competitive races across the nation.

Call it a battleground exchange program.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has campaigned with Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania and Senate candidate Colin Allred in Texas. Sen. Jon Ossoff has rallied supporters for a half-dozen Senate incumbents and challengers.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins has deployed to competitive House districts from Indiana to Maryland to help fellow Republicans, while Gov. Brian Kemp has helped raise cash and boost turnout for Senate GOP incumbents in tight races.

And former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is a valuable part of Kamala Harris’ campaign arsenal, deploying to key states to vouch for the Democratic nominee to independent and Republican voters.

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With each trip, the Georgians hope to grow support, spur fundraising and increase media attention for their allies, whether they be presidential campaigns or close races that could decide control of Congress.

But it also gives Georgia politicians a chance to hone their national profiles, expand their donor lists and boost their reputations with activists, voters and officials in key areas. Running for higher office in Georgia now requires a national footprint, and building out-of-state networks is increasingly essential.

Collins, a first-term Republican who represents a safe northeast Georgia district, isn’t a name-brand politician. But the moonlighting on the campaign trail has caught the notice of House GOP leaders. Recently, Majority Leader Steve Scalise invited him to join a national multistop tour.

“It’s a major time commitment to do all this, but I feel it’s what is required. We’ve all seen how hard it is to govern with a narrow majority,” said Collins, who is also a staple at pro-Donald Trump events in Georgia.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

He’s hit the road so many times he’s now made multiple stops to several battleground districts — including three to help Republican Derrick Anderson’s campaign to flip a Democratic-held seat in Virginia.

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During many of these forays into other states, aides say, Collins brings along a few staffers and spends several days knocking on doors and attending local events. A political animal, Collins seems to relish the trail. But he also acknowledged he has a higher-minded motive.

“My goal from day one has been to put Trump back in the White House and to also ensure we’ve got a bigger House majority to work with so we can pass legislation and not have to rely on executive orders,” he said.

‘Character of the nation’

For Ossoff, the campaign trail blitz is only going to ratchet up as he prepares for his 2026 reelection campaign. The first-term Democrat has made more than two dozen stops across Georgia in the past two months to boost Harris and down-ticket Democrats.

But he’s also sprinkled in travel to help Democrats in tough national races. He helped U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown kick off a canvassing launch in Ohio in June, and he made a trip to Michigan last month to promote Elissa Slotkin’s race for an open Senate seat there.

One of his most recent journeys was to Florida to campaign for U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s Senate bid. She told supporters she wanted to “shock the world” by pulling off what Ossoff did four years ago by ousting a GOP incumbent who is favored to win.

Credit: Mike Adams for the AJC

Kemp and Warnock might have an added reason for their cross-country trips. Both are considered future White House contenders regardless of whether Trump or Harris wins next week. And both are keeping their messaging strictly focused on the November race.

“This really is not an election of Democrats versus Republicans,” Warnock said at one stop, noting the GOP leaders who have rejected Trump. “This election really is about the character of the nation.”

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Shapiro was among a small number of battleground state politicians who returned the favor. He campaigned alongside Warnock in Clayton County, one of the deep-blue areas where Harris is depending on huge turnout.

“It’s still going to be close, but I think we’ve got momentum on our side,” Shapiro said in an interview. “I’m a sports guy. I’d much rather be us than them coming down to these final two minutes, and I think we’ve got a better team on the field.”

Then there’s Duncan, who has become a surprise star on the trail for the Harris campaign.

Few would have guessed a few years ago that Georgia’s Republican former lieutenant governor would get a coveted speaking role at the Democratic National Convention when Georgia Democratic luminaries such as Stacey Abrams would not.

Duncan has taken his anti-Trump message on the road to win over independent and Republican voters. He headed to a farmhouse last week in Lehman Township, a deeply conservative part of rural Pennsylvania.

Shapiro, the state’s Democratic governor, joined him on the campaign trail there, marveling in during a television report that he was “literally the only Democrat on the stage” at a Harris event this close to the election.

Duncan probably never thought he’d end up there, either. But, he told the crowd, he also never imagined he’d be vilified by Trump and his supporters for refusing demands to overturn the 2020 election.

“I am supporting Kamala Harris,” he said, “because I care more about the future of this country than the future of Donald Trump.”