When Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced a two-day swing through Georgia this week, Democrats outside metro Atlanta got a taste of something their GOP counterparts have long enjoyed: attention.
Democratic state Sen. Derek Mallow of Savannah called the bus tour “monumental.” Former state Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus called it a “big deal.” And Melissa Clink, a veteran liberal activist in the exurbs, declared herself “overjoyed.”
“Winning Georgia means understanding Georgia is much larger than just Atlanta,” she said. “It includes our rural areas as well as our larger cities outside the perimeter who are anxious for attention.”
For Republican presidential contenders, visits outside metro Atlanta are the norm. Former President Donald Trump regularly holds rallies at airports, racetracks and fairgrounds in places like Commerce, Dalton, Perry, Rome and Valdosta.
But Harris’ partially-disclosed campaign itinerary, which officials said includes stops with running-mate Tim Walz in South Georgia before a Thursday rally in Savannah, deviates from long-standing strategy.
Democratic White House candidates are far more likely to stick to the friendly confines of metro Atlanta, a vast left-leaning area that makes up more than half Georgia’s population. No Democrat can carry Georgia’s 16 electoral votes without blowing out the competition in the deep-blue bastions of Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
That’s one reason why President Joe Biden and Harris have combined for about a dozen stops in metro Atlanta this campaign, including a Harris rally this month at Georgia State University shortly after she became the nominee. Only two of the visits were outside metro Atlanta — both Harris events before Biden quit the race.
One of the rare exceptions: Biden in 2020 delivered an agenda-setting economic address in Warm Springs, but it was picked more for its symbolic backdrop as the favorite retreat of Franklin Delano Roosevelt than an appeal to local voters.
In fact, the last time a Democratic nominee spent significant time campaigning in South Georgia was in 1992, when Bill Clinton led a 10-bus caravan from Columbus to Valdosta with stops in Albany, Tifton and tiny Parrot. Aides dubbed it “Bubbas for Bill.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama hardly stumped in the state after they won their party’s nomination because Georgia was viewed as a GOP lock. When they did, they typically held fundraising events in Atlanta, the nexus of the state’s donor class.
But Biden’s narrow 2020 victory in Georgia also showed that Democrats can’t rely only on soaring turnout in metro Atlanta.
Consider Savannah’s Chatham County, where Democrats netted 10,000 more votes in 2020 than they did in 2016. Or tiny Liberty County, where Democrats picked up another 1,745 votes over the last two cycles.
“These margins matter,” said Democratic state Rep. Al Williams, whose entire House district encompasses Liberty County.
“No matter what they do in metro Atlanta — and hopefully it goes deep blue — we can’t just win with those votes. We have to maximize every place we can.”
‘Listen to him’
That’s also how the Harris campaign views the tightening race in Georgia — and why her campaign is emphasizing deep-red parts of the state. Quentin Fulks, one of Harris’ top deputies, noted the Harris operation has opened offices in places like Cordele and Valdosta where Republicans regularly run up the score.
“These are the types of places where you might not be able to go from losing 90-10 to winning them, but you can absolutely stave off” a bigger defeat, said Fulks. “It’s really important. And beyond that, the reason we’re investing there is because we have a message to talk to voters about.”
That includes a focus on the bipartisan infrastructure measure that Biden signed into law, along with federal health and energy incentives that have helped bring new economic development projects to rural Georgia.
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Credit: undefined
Republicans say it’s about time national Democrats paid more attention to rural Georgia. Cody Hall is a top adviser to Gov. Brian Kemp, whose rural-focused approach helped him defeat Stacey Abrams in the last two elections.
He praised Harris’ focus on reaching voters outside of metro Atlanta as “smart” before pummeling the White House’s policies, which Republicans blame for fueling an inflationary economy.
“She communicates often in a way that’s positive and has a rosier picture of the future. But the problem for them is the American people do not feel joyful right now. They’re paying more for everyday goods,” said Hall.
“That’s the potential pitfall for the Harris campaign — you can be optimistic but you have to be empathetic and understand where people are. And that’s been a huge miss for the Biden Administration overall.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Pete Fuller, chair of the Jackson County Democrats in rural northeast Georgia, sees something else at play: A chance for Democrats to rip a page out of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s playbook.
He won hard-fought elections in 2021 and 2022 by both appealing to swing voters and driving up turnout among Black Georgians in more rural areas long neglected by top-level Democrats.
“He has won more statewide elections in Georgia in the last five years than all other Democrats put together so it makes sense to listen to him,” said Fuller. “Putting up big numbers in metro Atlanta is super impressive, but what puts a Democrat over the top is getting a few extra percentage points out of these rural counties.”
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