ROME — There are only a few true battleground states on the political map, and Donald Trump closed his Saturday rally telling Republicans that he sees Georgia as a must-win for his campaign.

”If we win Georgia, we win the election. Let me put it that way.”

Both parties will battle to win Georgia, which voted Democratic in 2020 for the first time in nearly three decades. But Republicans see a scant path to a White House win without Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.

Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump walks on stage at a campaign rally at Forum River Center in Rome on Saturday, March 9, 2024. (Arvin Temkar / arvin.temkar@ajc.com)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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