Trump isn’t on Georgia’s ballot. Both parties are campaigning as if he is.

Top Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing heading into November: Georgians should vote as if Donald Trump is on the ballot.

They just disagree on whether that’s a reason to reward Republicans or punish them.

Trump’s Friday visit to Georgia will test both arguments as he campaigns in Dalton alongside Rick Jackson, the GOP nominee for governor, and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, the party’s U.S. Senate contender.

Democrats are more than happy to draw those connections, pummeling their Republican rivals for standing by a president who is unpopular with so many voters.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and Democratic nominee for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms are betting frustration over rising prices and the war against Iran will turn Trump’s sliding approval ratings into a sweeping rebuke of the president and an anchor for GOP candidates.

“Georgians should vote like Donald Trump is on the ballot. He is. His name is Rick Jackson,” said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock at a stop this week with Bottoms in deep-blue DeKalb County. “Rick Jackson is Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is Rick Jackson.”

Trump’s allies argue his power to mobilize the Republican base is worth the risk. At a Sunday tele-rally previewing his Dalton trip, he urged voters to “pretend” he’s on the ballot.

“When I’m on the ticket, we win everything,” he said. “You have to pretend that I’m on the ticket if you would, because in a sense, I am on the ticket — because they’re trying to destroy everything that we’ve done.”

The question looming over Trump’s visit is which party’s voters he’ll motivate more — and whether Republicans can fire up their base without driving away the swing voters who have tipped Georgia’s biggest races.

“The problem for Republicans in Georgia and everywhere in 2026 is that Trump turns out both Democrats and Republicans,” said political strategist Fred Hicks. “But since he returned to office, he’s turned out more Dems than Republicans.”

A balancing act

For Jackson, the timing is particularly awkward.

He spent much of the Republican primary promising to become Trump’s “favorite governor,” then tried to distance himself from the president after winning the nomination.

Jackson’s general election pivot was on display in last week’s Atlanta News First town hall with Bottoms. He never mentioned the president by name and repeatedly invoked Gov. Brian Kemp as his political model.

“I will stand up to anybody, just like Brian Kemp has done,” Jackson said.

Now he’s preparing to campaign with Trump, whose yearslong feuds with Kemp helped define the governor’s independent brand.

Jackson insists he will maintain his independence, saying this week he has no problem standing up to Washington and that “no other priority is higher than representing Georgians.”

His allies say he has no easy choice. Skip the rally, and he risks a backlash from the MAGA faithful. Show up, and Democrats get fresh ammunition to portray him as a Trump loyalist just as many voters start to tune in.

That’s Jackson’s predicament. He needs the president’s supporters. But his more recent embrace of Kemp, who campaigned with him this week, reflects his push to also reach the crossover voters who kept the Governor’s Mansion in GOP hands.

‘No one’

Collins faces a steeper climb. Polls show him well behind Ossoff, and national Republicans are shifting resources to other races.

Yet his campaign sees a more straightforward path to victory by focusing on Republicans who often skip midterms.

Collins hasn’t tried to distance himself one iota from Trump and has proudly trumpeted his “MAGA Mike” roots. At Tuesday’s Atlanta Press Club debate, he defended Trump’s policies at every turn, including a war with Iran that most polls show is deeply unpopular.

“Thank goodness we had the leadership to send people over there to take care of those nuclear weapons that they were trying to create,” Collins said of the ongoing conflict.

Ossoff is working to make Collins’ loyalty to Trump part of the problem. At their first debate last week, he accused Collins of having “sold out Georgia in his pathetic, childlike devotion to Donald Trump.”

Some in Ossoff’s orbit can’t understand why Collins is doubling down on Trump. But those inside his campaign see it as the path to winning.

Republican strategist Tim Murtaugh, a Collins adviser, put the campaign’s calculation bluntly: “It’s a midterm election, which means it’s a turnout election. No one turns out Republicans like Donald J. Trump. No one.”

A turnout test

As Trump’s visit nears, Bottoms is working to make sure voters don’t separate Jackson from the president.

After Jackson skipped Monday’s Atlanta Press Club debate, leaving her to debate an empty lectern, she quipped that he was probably “prepping his outfit” for Trump’s Friday event. And she casts her campaign as a rebuke of both men.

“We need you to show up in record numbers during early voting, so we can send a message not just to Rick Jackson, but also to Donald Trump that they’ve gone too far,” Bottoms said this week. “And the people of Georgia will not stand for it.”

The uncertainty over Trump’s impact extends down the Republican ticket.

Several GOP nominees for statewide office haven’t said whether they plan to attend the event, including Tim Fleming, the nominee for secretary of state, and Greg Dolezal, the nominee for lieutenant governor.

Asked whether the president’s visit would help or hurt GOP candidates, state Sen. Brian Strickland, the party’s nominee for attorney general, acknowledged he wasn’t sure.

He quickly turned to affordability, arguing it is the race’s central issue and pointing to Georgia’s fiscal health under Republican leadership.

“That’s because of the leadership that we’ve had under Republicans in our state, so whether it be President Trump, Brian Kemp, whoever it is, or Brian Strickland talking to voters, we need to talk about the issues that matter to them.”

For Republicans worried their supporters will sit out the election, Trump’s visit offers a jolt of enthusiasm.

“Voter apathy is a real concern across the board,” said Melanie Collier, a GOP activist who attended Trump’s rally in Rome earlier this year. “Trump’s visit energizes the base here in Georgia and is a solid boost for GOP candidates.”