In a late push to flip Georgia, former President Barack Obama headlined an election eve rally Monday pleading with voters to “put this country back on track,” while Republicans fanned out across the state urging conservatives to surge to the ballot box.
The final campaigning came as recent polls show Republican President Donald Trump and Joe Biden deadlocked in Georgia — and a chance that the state’s 16 electoral votes could swing Democratic for the first time since 1992.
Long an afterthought in White House races, Georgia this time around drew the attention of both campaigns, which devoted a crush of resources to the state in the final stretch of the race. Trump rallied thousands of conservatives in northwest Georgia late Sunday, hours after vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris appealed to suburban Democrats.
With more than 3.9 million votes already in, the rival campaigns are focusing on turning out their core constituencies — and persuading apathetic supporters to get off the sidelines — rather than preaching to the undecided.
The former president’s stop in Atlanta — in the shadows of the Olympic torch cauldron — was aimed as much at helping Biden as boosting U.S. Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The two capped the rally by joining Obama on stage as hundreds of Democrats honked car horns in approval.
“Georgia could be the place where we put this country back on track. And not just because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a chance to win Georgia,” Obama told hundreds at an outdoor rally in downtown Atlanta. “But you’ve got the chance to flip two Senate seats.”
He laced into their Republican rivals, U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, as “Batman and Robin gone bad” for stock transactions ahead of the coronavirus pandemic. Both have denied any wrongdoing and said federal investigators have cleared them of any criminal misconduct.
“They’re like the dynamic duo of doing wrong," Obama said. "I don’t know what they were thinking, but, Georgia, I promise you: Georgia was definitely not on their minds.”
Polls show a razor-tight race between Perdue and Ossoff, raising the possibility of a Jan. 5 runoff if neither gets a majority of the vote. Overtime is expected in the crowded special election for the other Senate seat, with Loeffler and Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins competing for a likely spot against Warnock.
‘Get this done’
A former Fortune 500 chief executive, Perdue took a nostalgic turn Monday as he capped a fly-around in the same hangar at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport where he held his final 2014 rally.
“Let’s get this done — and let’s get this done tomorrow,” he urged the crowd, steering clear of mentioning a possible nine-week runoff. Instead, he talked of pro-business accolades that Georgia has won under Republican administrations.
“Do we want to go back? Do we want to be like California?" Perdue asked. "What we’ve got to do is just get our vote out, guys. I’ve asked this before — stand with me.”
At Obama’s rally, Ossoff countered that Georgia deserved to elect “brilliant, decent, compassionate” leaders.
“It’s time to restore the soul of this nation,” he said. “It’s time to send David Perdue into retirement.”
Elsewhere, one of Georgia’s most fascinating subplots deepened. Collins and Loeffler have treated their corner of the 20-candidate special election as a GOP primary, scrambling to outrace each other to the party’s conservative flank while largely ignoring Warnock.
As part of his “Trump Defender” tour, Collins held a rally Monday in Buford with Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime political confidant who was sentenced to prison this year for lying to Congress.
To a crowd of more than 100 fanned out on the city’s Main Street, Stone ribbed Gov. Brian Kemp for picking an “elitist power player” for the seat.
“This is someone who I would have expected Gov. Stacey Abrams to put in the Senate,” Stone said, tying Kemp to his 2018 Democratic opponent. “But we are going to give the governor a pass, and the people of Georgia are going to put it right.”
Loeffler embarked on her own four-stop fly-around tour across Georgia that emphasized her loyalty to Trump, who praised both her and Collins at Sunday’s Rome rally.
Warnock, meanwhile, talked of “hope on the horizon” with Tuesday’s vote.
“We’ve got to fight hard because the future of our nation depends on it,” he said, as heads in the crowd nodded in agreement. “Beware of folks who try to frighten you into re-electing them.”
‘Meant to be’
At Obama’s event, each speaker invoked the tight polls that made the former president the latest big-name politician to campaign in Georgia. Biden stumped here last week, and Harris returned for the second time in eight days on Sunday. Trump drew thousands late Sunday in deeply conservative northwest Georgia.
“We are ready to be the blue state we are meant to be,” said Abrams, who called on Democrats to pay heed down the ballot. “We have the opportunity to change this state, change the narrative, change the future.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Biden’s most prominent early supporter in Georgia, said the state was poised for a game-changing moment on Tuesday.
“I have an optimism, Georgia, that says we’ll make this right. And we’ll make history,” she said. “We will do our part for our children’s children and cast our votes tomorrow. The generations are counting on us to get this right.”
Obama, meanwhile, leaned into his namesake Affordable Care Act in his closing pitch. He reminded the crowd of the repeated attempts by Republican incumbents to bring an end to his health care overhaul.
“Georgia, something has got to go. It’s either your senators or your health care,” he said. “And if I were you, I’d pick your health care. Get rid of the senators who are trying to take it away.”
Staff writer Tia Mitchell contributed to this article.
