Vice President Kamala Harris returned to Atlanta on Saturday for what could be her final stop in Georgia before Election Day with a star-studded rally urging voters to reject former President Donald Trump’s comeback bid.
“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump,” she told an estimated 12,000 supporters at the Atlanta Civic Center. “He’s trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. We’re done with that. We’re exhausted.”
Standing in front of a banner that read, “A president for all,” Harris painted Trump as a vengeful wannabe despot who is more interested in serving himself than the “to-do list” for Americans she has pledged to follow.
“This is someone who is increasingly unstable. Obsessed with revenge. Consumed with grievance. And the man is out for unchecked power,” she said. “And in less than 90 days, it’s either going to be us or him in the White House.”
Trump will headline a rally in Macon on Sunday for his final Georgia stop of the campaign. And both running mates – Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz – are holding major events in metro Atlanta on Sunday and Monday.
In a razor-tight contest days before the Tuesday election, the rival candidates have no resource more precious than time. And the back-to-back weekend rallies are a sign both see a genuine path to winning Georgia, where polls have long shown a neck-and-neck race.
More than 4 million people – more than half the state’s active voters – have already cast ballots in Georgia. The record-smashing in-person turnout featured a late surge in the heavily Democratic metro Atlanta strongholds of Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties that buoyed Harris’ campaign.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
But Republicans are also cheering the turnout. After long neglecting early voting, Trump and his allies have pushed voters to the polls, and some Republican-friendly bastions report voter participation levels pacing far ahead of the state average.
Now that many of the state’s most reliable voters have already cast their ballots, both campaigns are turning to the arduous task of driving out their remaining supporters – as well as those who rarely vote in White House races – to the polls on Election Day.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Harris’ event in Atlanta continued a trend of bringing bold-faced names to rallies to help rev up the crowd. She was joined Saturday by Spike Lee, Victoria Monet, 2 Chainz and Pastor Troy, along with the state’s top Democratic officials.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, one of Harris’ most prominent Georgia allies, urged the crowd to “tap into the hero inside of you” in the final days by pressing voters to head to the polls.
“I need to know that you are an avenger for goodness and mercy, for truth and justice and righteousness,” he said, adding: “Are you ready to summon the hero inside of you? Are you ready to save America?”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Democrats are particularly worried about soft support among Black voters – the party’s most loyal constituency – in recent polls of voters in Georgia. Monet, a famed singer, urged the diverse crowd to urge apathetic voters to take away one message.
“Remember, no vote from you means you just voted for Donald Trump,” she said.
Trump’s campaign branded the Harris stop a waste of time.
“Kamala Harris’ last-ditch attempt to gaslight Georgians and distract them with out of touch liberal Hollywood elites and flashy celebrities shows how desperate she is to distract Georgians from the last four years of her failed policy agenda,” said Trump aide Morgan Ackley.
And Trump has escalated attacks against Harris over the October labor report released Friday that showed U.S. employers added only 12,000 new jobs last month. The figures come after a string of more buoyant jobs reported and other positive economic indicators.
The warm weather in Atlanta helped bring out a festive crowd, though with temperatures topping 70 degrees, several overheated attendees fainted.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Harris promoted her support for expanded abortion rights access and pledged her top priority would be to bring down household costs by enacting new tax cuts. And she pressed her supporters who haven’t already banked their ballot to vote on Election Day — and to spread her message.
“I’m not looking to score political points,” she said. “I’m looking to make progress.”
Interviews with more than a dozen voters expressed a sense of optimism about Harris’ chances to make Democrats back-to-back winners in Georgia for the first time since Jimmy Carter was on the ballot.
Kevin Cromwell, a song writer and soccer coach from Lawrenceville, called Harris a “a return to common sense and decorum.”
“I teach kids when we lose, we reach across and shake the other guys’ hands. We couldn’t even get that from the other side last time.”
Staff writers Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy contributed to this report.
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