70 days until vote
Tuesday marks 70 days until Americans vote in federal and state races on Nov. 8. All year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has brought you the key moments in those races, and it will continue to cover the campaign's main events, examine the issues and analyze candidates' finance reports until the last ballot is counted. You can follow the developments on the AJC's politics page at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/georgia-politics/ and in the Political Insider blog at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/political-insider/. You can also track our coverage on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GAPoliticsNews or Facebook at https://facebook.com/gapoliticsnewsnow.
Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence began a two-day tour across Georgia on Monday to show Donald Trump isn't taking the state for granted, with visits to farmers in Middle Georgia, wealthy Republican donors in Atlanta and suburban supporters in Cobb County.
With polls showing a tight race in Georgia, the Indiana governor hopscotched across Georgia introducing himself to conservative Peach State voters, some of whom knew little about him before he was anointed as Trump's running mate. He's planning to spend a second day in Georgia on Tuesday, including a 3 p.m. town hall meeting in Dalton.
“You nominated a man who never quits, who never backs down. And he is a winner,” Pence said. “And until very recently, it seemed like he was fighting on his own. But it’s coming together, and Georgia is coming together.”
The barrage of Georgia campaign stops was meant to portray a sense of GOP unity behind Trump and Pence in a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat since 1992. Trump's divisive comments and sagging support among conservatives, though, has forced him to play defense in a reliably Republican state.
Pence met at each stop with Republicans who represented a slice of Georgia conservatives. At the Perry rally at the Georgia National Fairgrounds, agricultural workers waving “Farmers for Trump” signs cheered as Pence pronounced Trump “as genuine as a Georgia peach.”
Hours later, many of the Georgia GOP’s wealthiest donors attended a fundraiser that cost $100,000 to co-chair. Among the top sponsors for the event was Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, the state’s top political donor this election cycle, and most of the state’s Republican elected leaders were listed as guests on the invitation.
And on Monday night, Pence headlined a rally in Cobb County where he was introduced by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican with close ties to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other establishment figures. Chants of “lock her up” briefly drowned out one of the speakers, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, as he blasted Democrat Hillary Clinton.
‘Round them up’
A day after Pence struggled to define Trump's stance on immigration policy, the veep candidate steered clear of the debate at his first event in Georgia. Trump suggested last week that he may not follow through with his plan to remove the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and he has scheduled what he called a "major" immigration speech for Wednesday.
Many in the crowd of a few hundred at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry were unsettled by Trump’s changing rhetoric on his immigration policy. Lannie Hamsley, a retiree from Unadilla, said it was Trump’s tough-talking immigration stance that attracted her and millions of others to support his insurgent campaign earlier this year.
“I don’t want him to get too soft,” she said. “They need to round them up — and throw them out.”
The visit comes as both campaigns are ratcheting up their operations in Georgia. Clinton and Trump have beefed up their staffs here and hired veteran advisers to shepherd their Georgia efforts, and Democrats trumpeted Clinton's decision to pump a six-figure investment into the state party for field operatives and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Georgia Democrats were eager to paint Pence as a lackey of Trump, highlighting an immigration crackdown he sponsored while in Congress and new abortion restrictions he supported as Indiana’s governor. Nikema Williams, the vice chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, called Trump “the most dangerous candidate of our lifetime” and Pence as his willing enabler.
“Georgia Democrats want voters to know just how extreme and divisive both these men are and what’s really at stake in November,” Williams said.
The press is ‘all wrong’
Many of the Pence supporters welcomed the new attention from Democrats.
“I want them to continue to think that so they continue spending money in Georgia so they don’t go to places like North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio,” former Gov. Sonny Perdue, who introduced Pence at the Perry rally, said in an interview. “Please spend all the money you can here in Georgia. We’ll be solidly red in November.”
Perdue was among the Georgia politicos introducing Pence to an electorate that's not very familiar with the potential veep. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Pence netted a 56 percent approval rating among Republicans — another one-third ducked the question — and a 37 percent rating with independents, a typically conservative bunch.
“I didn’t know anything about him until he was nominated,” said Cresia Sapp, a retired educator from Swainsboro. “He’s got quite a different personality than Trump. But Trump is the same person he was when he wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ What he’s done is surround himself with the best people.”
Other Trump supporters were relieved that his campaign is paying attention to Georgia.
“This shows he cares — that he cares about Georgia and that he knows the importance of our state,” said Quinn Molencamp, who runs a radiology business in nearby Byron. “The press has got it all wrong. I travel the state of Georgia. I go through every little town, every little gas station — and they all support Trump.”
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