As President Biden and former President Donald Trump take the stage at CNN’s historic Techwood campus studio on Saturday night, the Peach State will also be in the spotlight.
“The stakes are very high,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat who represents east metro Atlanta and the suburbs. “And having this debate in Atlanta will help drive the vote for this very important and very high-profile election.”
Georgia has become a critical battleground. With 16 electoral votes, the country’s explosive growth has led to an increasingly diverse population. Black, Latino and Asian American voters.
Trump won the state in 2016 by 5 percentage points over Hillary Clinton. Mr. Biden flipped in 2020 with a slim advantage of about 12,000 votes. Trump and 18 co-defendants are accused of trying to overturn the 2020 results the pending election interference case. In today’s race, the former President leads Mr. Biden in Georgia 51%-48%, according to a CBS News battleground poll done earlier this year.
“I think people miss the policy,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, from northwest Georgia, told CBS News. “Inflation is something that, you know, affects a lot of people in Georgia, especially in rural Georgia.”
Image Andrew Harnik/Getty
This week the two campaigns flood the capital with voter outreach, press conferences, ads, surrogates and debate viewing parties. The Biden-Harris campaign organized more than 1,600 events in battleground states. That’s included daily press briefings focused on issues ranging from reproductive rights to the economy, attract local politicians like Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to Sens Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan. The Trump campaign is targeting some outreach to black voters with Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida and Congressman Wesley Hunt from Texas “Chopping up” in barbershops and cigar lounges as RNC leaders make the rounds in northern Atlanta suburbs to discuss election integrity.
Senator Lindsey Graham said it’s “good” the South is getting more political attention. A close Trump ally made the two-hour trip from his home in neighboring South Carolina to attend.
“I think this debate is going to be, the main focus is, can Biden? Graham said. “And if I were Trump, I would talk about the right track, the wrong track. I don’t think he should be too aggressive.”
CBS News poll found 70% of likely Republican voters believe Trump should be “more polite” during the debate while 68% of Democratic voters say Mr. Biden should be “stronger.” 63% of voters who intend to listen say they want to hear more about the candidate’s plans and policies.
“Americans need to see a difference,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, of Delaware, who is also Biden’s campaign chairman. “They need to see the contrast between people who work for the American people every day and not just for themselves.”
“Be yourself, be a leader who is compassionate, balanced, capable, and wise,” added fellow campaign chairman Sen. Chris Coons, sing has not directly advised Mr. Biden’s team. Delaware Democrat attend the first presidential debate of 2020 in Cleveland, which is a shouting match between the two candidates and hopes that there will be no repeat.
“It was one of the most chaotic and inappropriate performances by a presidential candidate I’ve ever seen,” Coons recalled. “Donald Trump, the president at the time, blew away all the norms and rules of how he conducted himself and was amazing. The only thing we know about him is that he is unpredictable.
Mr. Biden has been hunkered down at Camp David for nearly a week for a mix of informal and formal preparation sessions with advisers, such as Trump’s attorney Bob Bauer. Trump has taken a less traditional approach holding policy discussions with leading experts and GOP lawmakers like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri.
“It was a good meeting,” Schmitt told CBS News. “I think he will do well in the debate.”
The first senator and former state attorney general declined to explain the specifics of the meeting and joked that he was “not” a stand-in for Mr. Biden.
“For the first time in anyone’s lifetime, you have two individuals who have been Presidents running against each other,” Schmitt said. “So you have a pretty unique opportunity to review the story of the record. And I think everybody knows that you know, we have secure borders. We’re energy dominant. People are making more money. I think about the election, so you see President Trump the most in the polls… .
Former vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia, understands the pressure that comes with being on the national debate stage. He said Republicans should not underestimate the President’s performance, pointing back to his State of the Union address. Kaine’s “one suggestion” was for Mr. Biden to encourage “good economic news.”
“Manufacturing jobs are up, unemployment is down, 401k’s are up, infrastructure, we’re rebuilding,” Kaine explained. “I think there is a strong economic message that the President can deliver and deliver. I think he will do the same.”
Nicole Killion
