Back in 2020, Joe Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes. Now his senior campaign official in the state, Jonae Wartel, maintains Georgia is still a priority.
“I can assure you from every conversation that I’ve had that Georgia needs to be a battleground state in this election,” Wartel says.
Wartel’s comments Thursday on “Politically Georgia” come as the Biden campaign is beefing up staff in the Peach State. The campaign hired nine new staffers and announced it will open seven offices sometime this month.
“We will continue to hire organizers, open offices and make sure that this campaign is felt in every corner of the state,” Wartel says.
The Senior Biden adviser is no stranger to Georgia. She played a crucial role in the 2021 runoffs, when Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won election to the U.S. Senate.
She says issues such as abortion will play a large role this election cycle, even though it did not move the needle as much for Stacey Abrams and other candidates in the 2022 midterm elections. The political climate has changed, Wartel said.
“We’re having a different conversation where the now Republican nominee is now having more extreme positions and making more extreme and controversial remarks since 2022,” Wartel says.
The presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, made a stop in Atlanta on Wednesday for a fundraiser after saying earlier in the week that abortion laws should be left up to the states.
On Wednesday, despite saying abortion is a matter that should be left to the states, he told reporters that the 160-year-old abortion law reinstated by the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday was “too restrictive.” But he did not did not clarify further on his stance.
Wartel says abortion will mobilize voters in November.
“We’re talking about reproductive freedom, right? We’re talking about women being able to make decisions over their own bodies,” Wartel says. “I think this is a unique issue where you really bring together a coalition of folks.”
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