Almost every time a Georgian took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last week, he or she used the spotlight to repeat a familiar claim: Georgia is now a battleground state. The difference this time is that the highest levels of Republican officialdom also warn that the state may no longer be a safe GOP bet. At least not this year.

Georgia still isn’t directly in Democrat Hillary Clinton’s cross hairs. You’d know it if it was. The election would be even more inescapable. Nonstop advertisements. Frequent visits from Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. And enough mudslinging from their surrogates to fill up Underground Atlanta.

Those things could still happen. A common strain from the Democratic and Republican meetings that just ended was that Georgia has the chance to turn blue for the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1992 win over President George H.W. Bush.

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A native of Columbus and a fine arts graduate of Clark Atlanta, Amy Sherald was chosen as the official portrait artist of former first lady Michelle Obama. On the same week that the portrait was unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, it was also announced that Sherald was awarded the High Museum's 2018 David C. Driskell Prize. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Credit: Andrew Harnik