AJC on the trail
From Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has brought in-depth coverage of the early voting in the Republican and Democratic presidential races. We’ll continue to bring you the latest on how the races are developing in Georgia and the 11 other states voting on March 1, the day of the SEC primary.
The campaign comes to Georgia
As the March 1 Georgia primary grows nearer, presidential candidates are making plans to visit the state.
- Ohio Gov. John Kasich is planning two town hall meetings Tuesday in metro Atlanta. The first will be at noon at Kennesaw State University. The second will be at 5 p.m. in Sandy Springs. He is also set to meet with Gov. Nathan Deal that day and address the Georgia House.
- Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's Georgia supporters announced that he will hold a campaign event 11 a.m. Saturday in metro Atlanta.
- Billionaire Donald Trump will return to Georgia the day before the primary, holding a rally at 6 p.m. at Valdosta State University.
For more candidate announcements, check ajc.com and myAJC.com.
The first stop Donald Trump scheduled after cementing his front-runner status with a dominant victory in South Carolina was the short hop to Georgia, where voters get their say on March 1.
The Peach State is enjoying a sliver of the presidential spotlight over the next nine days as the race for the White House tightens, with visits planned by three of the top Republican contenders in the race.
And Trump, who drew a crowd of more than 6,300 to Sunday’s rally, made clear that Georgia was key to his presidential strategy. He scheduled another visit to Georgia next week — a speech on Feb. 29 at Valdosta State University — as he urged the crowd to help him upend a Washington establishment already reeling after his South Carolina victory.
That commanding victory — he swept all of the Palmetto State’s 50 GOP delegates — forced his fiercest detractor, Jeb Bush, out of the race and raised fresh questions whether any mainstream candidate can emerge to win the nomination from Trump.
“We won with everything. We won with women — I love the women. We won with men. I’d rather win with women, to be honest with you. We won with evangelicals. We won with the military,” he said, relishing his performance. “Tall people, short people, fat people, skinny people. We won. It was a beautiful day.”
He added: “You want to know something? I’m a better person than the people I’m running against.”
Trump is heading into the next round of votes in Georgia and the other states in the so-called SEC primary with a full head of steam. He finished second in Iowa’s caucus, with its largely evangelical GOP voter base, and he cruised to big victories in moderate New Hampshire and culturally conservative South Carolina.
With about one-quarter of the delegates needed to win the GOP nomination up for grabs in the March 1 primary, the billionaire developer faces new challenges and an evolving two-front battle.
The first is with Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is battling with Trump for the support of religious conservatives that dominate the GOP electorate in Georgia and the six other states south of the Mason-Dixon Line that vote next week.
At events on Sunday, Cruz reminded audiences that roughly 70 percent of voters have declined to back Trump in the first three rallies, and he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he is the only “strong conservative in this race who can win.” The tea party favorite is also planning a visit to Georgia on Saturday, three days before the vote.
The second front is against the mainstream candidates locked in a battle for votes in the more moderate Midwest and New England states that also hold elections over the next weeks. Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are jockeying for the title of the alternative to Trump and Cruz.
Rubio’s camp insisted Sunday that it is a three-man race — between him, Trump and Cruz — and he circulated a memo asserting that the campaign has the “most room to grow” as more candidates drop out.
"He is consistently the second choice of voters who support other candidates and has the highest favorability of anyone in the race," stated the memo, written by campaign manager Terry Sullivan.
Rubio’s campaign also began reaching out to Bush backers late Saturday night, and several of his Georgia operatives expressed confidence that they had won over many of the former Florida governor’s most ardent supporters.
Kasich, though, showed no signs of bowing out as he campaigned in Nevada and readied for a Tuesday visit to Georgia that is set to include a meeting with Gov. Nathan Deal and two town hall meetings in metro Atlanta. He trumpeted to skeptics that he is still getting “big crowds everywhere we go.”
Trump welcomed all comers. At his Sunday rally in a cavernous exhibit hall at the Georgia World Congress Center, he at times looked past his Republican rivals and cast himself as the best to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton, who he said is poised to defeat Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for her party’s nomination.
“I think it’s going to be Hillary. It shouldn’t be Hillary, honestly,” Trump said, as the crowd roared its disapproval. “But I think it’s going to be her.”
He railed against “political hacks” and “political incompetence” from both parties, warned that the country is “going to hell” and said his promises to build a wall on the Mexican border and eradicate the Islamic State are the only ways to make the U.S. exceptional again.
“Isn’t it true, our country does not win anymore. We don’t win against ISIS. We don’t win with trade. And we don’t win with health care,” he said, adding that if he’s elected, the crowd will “get so tired of winning” that they will beg him to stop.
The crowd was mobilized to support him. Former Georgia GOP Chairwoman Sue Everhart, who endorsed Trump weeks ago, told the crowd that she is “going to work until five minutes to 7 on Election Day to get him elected.”
A line of hundreds snaked around the convention center hours before the event began.
Near the front was Rose Bonk, a Columbus woman who had never attended a political rally before. When asked why she decided to make this her first, her answer came quickly:
“He hasn’t asked me for any money, first of all. I’m tired of all the crap from politicians, and I want to give him the chance to prove he’s not one of them. And I’ve been doing everything I can in Columbus to convince people to feel the same way.”
One person who might need convincing is her husband, Jim Bonk, who is undecided between Trump and Cruz.
“That won’t last,” she quipped.
Cherie Edgecomb, a Cumming native, hasn’t volunteered for a campaign since 1984, when she backed Ronald Reagan. Now she’s throwing in with Trump’s campaign, lending her time to knock on doors and call potential voters.
“He’s not the establishment. And I’m just fed up,” she said. “Everything that is wrong with our country — he will turn it around. He’s going to turn it around.”
They weren’t all Trump acolytes. Rob Oldham leans toward Kasich, but he said he’ll probably wind up voting for Rubio because he considers him more electable. Still, he couldn’t pass up the chance to hear Trump.
“I’ve heard so much about it, I wanted to see what it was like myself,” Oldham said. “You never know what Donald will do. He could say anything. I’m just here for the experience.”
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