Trump eyes return to Georgia ahead of November midterms
President Donald Trump could make two campaign stops in Georgia before the November election, according to three Republican officials familiar with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about them.
The sources said that the visits remain tentative and the timing, details and whereabouts are uncertain.
A Trump appearance could energize GOP candidates who have embraced the president while complicating the strategy of those trying to distance themselves from his sagging poll numbers.
The potential trips would be the first since Trump visited Cobb County in July for an event to promote a new investment account for children that quickly became a campaign rally.
They would come at a pivotal moment in Georgia’s midterm campaign, with three weeks of early voting beginning Tuesday.
It’s unclear which Georgia candidates might appear alongside Trump.
In the U.S. Senate race, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins has leaned into his MAGA credentials against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, embracing the nickname “MAGA Mike” and reinforcing his support for Trump’s policies.
Trailing Ossoff in every major public poll, Collins is betting that an energized MAGA base can help narrow the gap.
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But Trump’s potential stops could put Rick Jackson, the GOP nominee for governor, in a bind.
Locked in a tight race with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the billionaire healthcare executive has spent months since winning the GOP nomination trying to distance himself from a president he once vowed to emulate.
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He’s courting the independents and crossover voters who helped Gov. Brian Kemp win a landslide reelection four years ago — and he pointed to Kemp, not Trump, as his political model during Tuesday’s debate.
“I will stand up to anybody, just like Brian Kemp has done,” Jackson said. “He works with both parties, both presidents, and he stands up when he disagrees.”
Those split-ticket voters could be pivotal in November. Roughly 200,000 Georgians backed Kemp and Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022, and Jackson is trying to re-create that coalition without alienating Trump’s loyal base.
But Bottoms and other Democrats are fighting to forge the same coalition. She has called Jackson a “chameleon” and accused him of trying to reinvent himself for the general election.
“He said he wanted to be his favorite governor, wants to be him with a Southern tone,” she said of Jackson. “And now he wants voters to believe that he’s changed his mind.”