GEORGIA IS ONE of the key swing states in the upcoming US election with both Republicans and Democrats spending a lot of time and money on their campaign efforts there.
According to a poll released by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week, the southern state remains on a knife-edge.
Former President Donald Trump has 47% support in Georgia, while Vice President Kamala Harris has 44% support. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points and around 7% of voters remain undecided ahead of November.
Nationwide polls place the pair neck-and-neck with a handful of swing states like Georgia set to decide the outcome.
The Journal spent some time in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, this week. During our visit, we interviewed Mark Strassmann, CBS News’ senior national correspondent.
Strassmann has been reporting on American life for decades – he broke the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, and has covered eight Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
“One of the ways you can tell that Georgia is a battleground state is because the ads are playing and they’re playing all day long, you cannot get away from them,” Strassmann told us.
You see an ad for Trump and then right after you see an ad for Harris, then right after that you see another ad for Trump. So it’s 24/7.
Atlanta is quite a diverse, liberal city. The wider Georgia state, however, typically votes Republican.
Joe Biden turned it blue in 2020 by just 12,000 votes – out of some five million votes cast – largely due to the efforts of former Democrat Representative Stacey Abrams.
“Just the idea of winning or losing a state as significant as Georgia by so few votes out of that many tells you just how divided Georgia is and, in some respects, is representative of America in general,” Strassmann explained.
He said the two recent assassination attempts on Trump are “deeply upsetting to millions of Americans” and “just one more sign that the fabric of the country is fraying”.
Strassmann noted that – following Biden’s “disastrous” debate performance in June, shortly before he dropped out of the race – there was a sense among many people that Trump would be re-elected.
Harris taking over as the Democratic nominee last month “re-energised” the party, but Americans are still in the “getting-to-know-you phase” with her.
“All vice presidents tend to fade into the background, that’s just the nature of the role,” he said.
Love Trump or hate Trump, Americans believe they know him. That’s not the case with Harris.
“That is why there’s such an effort right now by the Trump campaign to define who she is, before she has a chance to define herself.”
Trump famously refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. On 2 January 2021, he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find” the votes needed to win the state in an attempt to overturn Biden’s win.
This eventually led to a criminal investigation being launched to examine efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the election. The legal battle related to that remains ongoing just weeks out from the 2024 election.
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed three of the counts in the indictment accusing Trump and co-defendants of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Trump still faces eight felony counts in the case.
The former president’s refusal to accept the outcome of the previous election, and claim that the vote was rigged against him, resulted in thousands of his supporters storming the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Strassmann fears there could be similar scenes after the upcoming election if Trump loses and again refuses to accept the result. He’s not sure a similar attack would happen in Washington DC, but believes there could be mass protests around the country.
“I would be surprised if there were a similar attack on the US Capitol. First of all, it happened before, so you would think they would be better prepared.
“Second of all, it’s a Democratic administration [currently in office], not a Republican administration. So I think they are also mindful of history, recent history.
But you can’t be everywhere, protecting every place at once.
Trump has repeatedly berated Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for certifying the 2020 election results, resulting in a tense relationship between the two Republicans.
However, Kemp appeared alongside Trump’s vice-presidential nominee JD Vance earlier this week in a show of party unity.
Strassmann said most Republicans have “moved on” from the narrative that the last election was unfairly lost, or didn’t believe it in the first place.
It’s clearly a question mark for the Trump diehards, they either still believe or are pushing the narrative that Trump was cheated somehow out of these votes.
“I think most Republicans have moved on from that narrative. Trump keeps it alive in his speeches, and his more vocal supporters keep it alive – but I think most people are looking forward, not looking back.”
However, Strassmann added that Trump “is again pushing the narrative that if he loses, then there has to be something wrong with the process itself”.
Georgia has made international headlines for a number of reasons recently.
At least two women in the state died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica reported this week.
And, once again, there was another high school shooting.
The suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on 4 September.
The teenager had reportedly been given the rifle by his father Colin Gray – who has also been charged over the incident - as a Christmas present.
Gun control and reproductive rights are two issues that have divided Americans for a long time. Some voters will never change their opinion on either topic.
“Georgia is a pro-gun state, like most of the American south,” Strassmann said.
He has covered many high school shootings over the course of his career including the one in Winder this month and the Columbine High School massacre back in 1999.
Virtually nothing has changed in those 25 years in terms of gun control, he noted.
Strassmann said many Americans want more gun controls to be put in place, but the country remains “split” on the issue – and more mass shootings are unlikely to change that.
Many people have become “numb” to such events, “as appalling as that is to say”, he told us.
Another issue that could play a role in how people vote is the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Emory University in Atlanta was one of many US colleges at which Palestinian solidarity encampments were set up earlier this year.
The university’s president, Gregory Fenves, called in the police to dismantle the camp in April, resulting in the arrests of 28 people.
Protesters maintain that the demonstration was peaceful and police officers used excessive force, spraying tear gas and hitting demonstrators with rubber bullets.
Strassmann said many younger voters in Atlanta are passionate about the issue.
“They are much more sympathetic to, and sensitive to, the Palestinian plight than has been the case in this country for a number of years.”
There are fears in the Democratic party that young liberals will abstain from voting, or vote for a third party candidate, in swing states because they do not agree with Harris’ stance on Gaza.
“When you win or lose a state this size by 12,000 votes, every vote really does count,” Strassmann said.
Following the arrests of student and staff members at the encampment in April, a non-binding ‘no confidence’ motion in Fenves was passed at the university.
Shortly before the new academic year started, Fenves updated the university’s ‘open expression’ policy in order to ban encampments as well as any protests between midnight and 7am – a move criticised by staff.
Ibrahim (20) was among those present at the encampment in April. He asked us not to publish his surname for safety reasons.
Recalling that day, he told The Journal: “The police began shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at us… that caused a lot of chaos.
“We had professors arrested just for standing nearby, and telling the police to stop being brutal to their students and slamming them on the ground.”
Some of Ibrahim’s friends were arrested and are awaiting court dates. They deny the charges levelled against them – mainly a mix of trespassing and public disorder.
Tensions remain high on campus and there have been accusations of both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Ibrahim acknowledged that some Jewish students “do not feel safe because of our protest”, but added that others “do support our cause” and were part of the encampment, “chanting with us, protesting with us”.
Ibrahim’s parents are Syrian but moved to Kentucky 25 years ago, a few years shortly before he was born. His family is Muslim and he fears another Trump presidency.
However, he said he cannot vote for Harris unless she agrees to stop arming Israel – something that is unlikely to happen.
“I cannot bring myself to vote for Kamala Harris. Obviously Georgia is a very important swing state, and she’s not listening to our beliefs.”
Ibrahim intends to vote for a third party candidate.
“No one’s going to tell you how to vote, but if you are voting for her, do your part in pressuring her to enact an arms embargo and to stand up for Palestine. Some things are deal-breakers.”
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