Why Georgia politicians keep showing up on football Saturdays

ATHENS — Keisha Lance Bottoms had a debate to prepare for. But first, she had a date with a Bulldog.

The Democratic nominee for governor slipped away ahead of Tuesday’s debate with Republican nominee Rick Jackson to head to Georgia’s homecoming game, where she hit the Sanford Stadium sidelines and posed with the school’s mascot.

She wasn’t the only candidate mixing politics with football.

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins’ supporters fanned out across Greek Row, with a mission to “save America one fraternity party and tailgate at a time.”

Georgia Democrats countered with their own game day gambit, handing out red-and-black “Beat Mike Collins” koozies to fans.

And this weekend, the collision between politics and college football moves to an even bigger stage.

President Donald Trump plans to be in Tuscaloosa for Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama showdown, though Hurricane Isaias could scuttle those plans. If he makes the trip, it would be his third time attending a game between the two SEC powers.

He watched Alabama’s overtime victory in the 2018 national championship in Atlanta and returned for the Crimson Tide’s unforgettable 41-34 win over the Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa during his 2024 campaign.

Each of the candidates is reading from a familiar playbook, trying to channel the excitement and energy around the No. 2 Bulldogs into November votes with tough contests in top races.

After all, in one of the nation’s premier political battlegrounds, who doesn’t want to wrap themselves in the banner of a beloved winner while appealing to tens of thousands of voters?

A gridiron legacy

Two years ago, Trump’s visit to the same rivalry game in Tuscaloosa turned one of the biggest Saturdays in college football into an extension of the presidential campaign.

He threw out snacks to clamoring fans and received rapturous applause — and a smattering of boos — when he was introduced over the loudspeakers.

And during the game, he sat in a luxury suite near the 40 yard line alongside musician Kid Rock — who arrived in Tuscaloosa separately in his private jet — and several Alabama politicians.

Georgia voters have grown used to this sort of politicking on fall Saturdays. Every two years, candidates try to leverage the enthusiasm around gridiron games into energy for their campaigns.

The on-campus showdowns offer candidates an enticing opportunity to appeal to a segment of the electorate that’s notoriously hard to reach: young voters.

And as Kennesaw State University political scientist Eric Castater notes, they can do it without spending much money or delivering a stump speech.

“Local politicians can get their name out to voters who otherwise might not be focused on campaigns, do so at relatively low cost, and demonstrate to these voters that they are ‘regular people’ and not typical politicians,” he said.

That appeal goes beyond young voters. Football offers candidates a chance to show a more relatable side, bonding with fans over something other than a partisan fight.

Back in 2014, Democrat Jason Carter brushed off criticism when he took his gubernatorial campaign bus to Jacksonville, Florida, to wade amid fellow Bulldog devotees before the wild Georgia-Florida grudge match.

And in 2015, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign delved deep into Southern football strongholds four times, with an “SEC selfie tour” making stops at Georgia games in Athens and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Four years ago, Herschel Walker played into the fandom around his Georgia football icon status during his U.S. Senate campaign. His campaign blanketed Athens with “Run Herschel Run” stickers, and he happily signed memorabilia for fans at campaign events.

Gov. Brian Kemp, an Athens native and devoted Georgia football fan, has for years worked tailgates, steeping his campaigns in the red-and-black hues of his beloved Bulldogs.

To irk the Republican, Democrats even once flew a banner over Sanford Stadium in 2018 accusing Kemp of secretly rooting for Tennessee — a cardinal sin for a diehard Dawg.

He did his best not to let it get under his skin, but four years later at another game day reelection rally on campus, he kept one eye on the sky and quipped about whether he would see another insulting banner peak out of the clouds.

And just last year, Kemp chose Georgia’s season opener for his first public campaign appearance with Derek Dooley, the former football coach and son of Bulldogs legend Vince Dooley who made his gridiron experience central to his ill-fated Senate bid.

Watching football

On Saturday, Trump’s planned visit to Tuscaloosa will bring his tour through deep-red territory to one of college football’s biggest stages.