Donald Trump visits Georgia
The president is expected to campaign with Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson, GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins.
President Donald Trump will campaign in Dalton on Friday, his third visit to Georgia this year.
The visit comes less than three weeks before the midterm elections. Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins hopes Trump can give his campaign some momentum in the face of a fundraising and polling disadvantage against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
The event begins at 1:30 p.m. Trump is expected to speak at 2:45 p.m. Follow along with us throughout the day for updates from the campaign trail.
New Reynolds ad brings up 2020
Democratic secretary of state nominee Penny Brown Reynolds is out with a new ad today describing what she would do if President Donald Trump asked her to overturn election results.
"I would hang up the phone," she says in the spot.
Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results have played into Democrats' campaign plans. We'll see if Trump brings it up today during his speech in Dalton.
Trump brings Bulldog star power aboard Air Force One
President Donald Trump is bringing some Georgia football star power to his rally.
Former Bulldogs standout Todd Gurley, who went on to NFL stardom with the Los Angeles Rams and later played for the Atlanta Falcons, is hitching a ride aboard Air Force One for the trip to Georgia.
Gurley was a sensation in Athens, rushing for 3,285 yards and 36 touchdowns over three seasons before the Rams selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft.
He's not the first Georgia football legend in Trump's political orbit. The president recruited former Bulldogs star Herschel Walker to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022. Walker lost that race, but Trump later tapped him as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.
Counterprogramming
With President Donald Trump in Georgia today, Democrats are holding their own events to get their message out.
Democratic nominee for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms will campaign in Albany at noon, Tifton at 3 p.m. and Perry at 6 p.m. Tomorrow, Bottoms will campaign with Ossoff at a rally in Cobb County.
More bad news for Collins
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins raised $2.4 million in the past quarter. He has just over $1 million in the bank, one of the smallest totals for any U.S Senate candidate in a competitive race.
Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has roughly $26 million in his campaign account.
Why is Trump in Georgia today?
Why does President Donald Trump keep saying that voters should pretend like he’s on the ballot when they think about voting in 2026?
Maybe because of signs like the early voting numbers coming in for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, where Trump will hold a rally Friday with GOP candidates.
While about 4% of registered voters, or 23,000 people, had cast their ballots there as of Wednesday night, that’s way down from the 7.3% of registered voters, or about 42,000 people, who had voted at the same point in the 2024 election, when Trump really was on the ballot.
AJC politics columnist Patricia Murphy has more.
Balancing act
Republican U.S. Senate challenger Mike Collins has leaned into Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda in his uphill battle against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. But Rick Jackson, the GOP nominee for governor, has walked a finer line.
He has shifted from promises to be Trump’s “favorite governor” during the primary to a tighter embrace of Gov. Brian Kemp, who feuded with the president for much of his tenure. How Jackson handles his time onstage, and how Democrats exploit it, will be one of the day’s biggest storylines.