Trump Campaigns in Georgia With His Own Lost Race
on His Mind
President Trump returned to the campaign trail on
Saturday, but helping the two Republican senators in runoff elections that will
decide control of the Senate wasn’t his entire agenda.
Jonathan
Martin Astead W. Herndon
By Jonathan
Martin and Astead W. Herndon
Dec. 5,
2020
Updated
6:09 p.m. ET
VALDOSTA,
Ga. — One month to the day before a pair of Georgia runoffs that will determine
the Senate majority, and just over a month after his own defeat, President
Trump’s first trip to campaign in the high-stakes races had Republicans and
Democrats in a state of high anticipation over the same question: What would he
say?
As Mr.
Trump rages on about his loss, falsely claiming fraud and refusing to concede
even as most states have certified their results, leaders in the two parties
have shifted their attention to Georgia, where the fate of Republican Senators
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will decide whether Democrats have full control
of Congress next year.
The
president’s willingness to campaign Saturday night in heavily conservative
South Georgia heartened Republican officials, who have been lobbying him to
intervene in the runoffs. Mr. Perdue is facing Jon Ossoff, a former filmmaker
who ran in a high-profile special House race at the outset of Mr. Trump’s
presidency, and Ms. Loeffler is running against the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the
pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
But Mr.
Trump is far more fixated on disputing the results from November than he is on
looking to ensure that his party retains a foothold in the capital in January.
As if to
prove just that point, before he took off on Saturday the president telephoned
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia to urge him to challenge President-elect Joseph R.
Biden Jr.’s win in the state, which has been confirmed by multiple recounts. He
also asked the governor to declare a special session of the legislature to
mandate an audit of signatures on mail ballots.
Hoping to
pacify Mr. Trump, Mr. Kemp acknowledged the call on Twitter and noted he has
already called for an audit of the signatures on the mail ballots “to restore
confidence in our election process.” The governor did not mention that he and
other state officials last month certified the Georgia results.
That is in
large part because Mr. Trump has substantial company in his conspiracy-mongering:
namely more than half the rank-and-file in his party who are similarly
convinced that he was cheated from victory, polls show.
Perhaps
nowhere are those suspicions more widespread than in Georgia, which Mr. Biden
put in the Democratic column for the first time since 1992 and where Mr. Trump
has stoked anger at the state’s Republican governor and secretary of state for
not helping him overturn the results here.
Because of
the grip he maintains on conservative voters, what Mr. Trump says in Valdosta
on Saturday and beyond may prove decisive in Georgia. If he makes an emphatic
case for Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler, and portrays a Senate Republican majority
as a crucial check on perceived Democratic excesses, it could rally enough
conservatives to ensure two Republican wins next month.
“The best
thing they can do, those who supported Trump, is to support his legacy by
having the Senate come back with a Republican majority,” said Senator Thom
Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, articulating the message G.O.P. lawmakers
hope Mr. Trump delivers.
Yet Mr.
Trump is refusing to even acknowledge he lost and every day is sowing distrust
in Georgia’s voting system as he takes to Twitter to cry falsely that the
election was “rigged.” He has repeatedly railed against the vote-counting
machines the state used and falsely asserted that mail-in ballots were rife
with fraud, giving Republicans reason to question both voting by mail and
in-person voting.
“The
senators’ best argument is that Georgia needs to elect them to be a check and
balance on President Biden,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster.
“The problem is, President Trump won’t let them make that message. And it puts
the Senate candidates in a real bind.”
If Mr.
Trump veers from his teleprompter on Saturday and in subsequent trips here to
dispute his 12,000 vote loss and lashes out at Mr. Kemp and Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger, it could overwhelm his scripted message and undermine the
intended purpose of his visit by convincing his supporters that their votes may
not count in January.
Compounding
the challenge for Republicans, and to the great joy of Democrats, the president
has been joined in his promotion of conspiracy theories by a pair of far-right
lawyers, Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood. But Ms. Powell, who until recently was
part of Mr. Trump’s legal team, and Mr. Wood have gone even further, arguing
that Georgia Republicans should punish the party by boycotting the Jan 5
runoffs.
If even a
modest number of Republicans sit out the election, especially in rural areas
where Mr. Trump’s support is strongest, it could be enough to alter the
electoral math in this evenly divided state and tip the two races to the
Democrats.
Democrats
are hoping Mr. Trump’s appearance will serve as motivation for their base. Just
as Republicans are depending on the president to energize their voters,
Democrats believe that making the runoffs a referendum on the president will
rally both liberals and moderates.
This week,
at campaign events throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area, Mr. Ossoff said
Republicans were seeking to invalidate the will of Georgia voters, and drew a
direct connection with the attempts to subvert the election and historic
efforts at voter suppression directed at Black residents.
His
supporters oscillated between finding the Republican infighting amusing and
alarming.
Kim Hall, a
56-year-old Cobb County resident, said for once it was the typically more
fractious Democrats who are united.
“Who’s
going to stay home? Republicans,” Ms. Hall said. “They keep saying stay home or
don’t stay home. One person says ‘Give them your vote’ and then someone else
will say ‘Don’t give them your vote.’ You know, I say they’re right. Stay home
and do just that.”
Back in
Valdosta, 250 miles south of the sort of suburban Atlanta voters Republicans do
not want Mr. Trump to further alienate, supporters of the president began
arriving at the regional airport by noon for the first of his signature rallies
since his defeat. After a month of Mr. Trump’s self-imposed seclusion in
Washington, his most dedicated admirers were echoing his complaints about the
election — and his changing television preferences.
Gondra
Crumbley, a 53-year-old supporter of Mr. Trump who lives in nearby Adel, Ga.,
said he has stopped watching Fox News in favor of Newsmax, which he said was
more supportive of Mr. Trump and his claims of election fraud.
Mr.
Crumbley said he planned to vote in the January runoff elections, but
understands the hesitation from others considering what he feels has been
inadequate action from the governor and secretary of state.
“This just
ain’t right,” he said. “There’s all this corruption that you see on TV and
they’re finding out. And everyone needs to step up when we see this type of
corruption.”
For his
part, the president was plainly delighted to be back where he’s happiest — at
the center of attention — and to leave people guessing about his intentions.
Mr. Trump
tweeted a video of the gathering crowd to build anticipation — “See you tonight
at 7PM, Georgia!” he wrote — but in another message made clear what election
was foremost in his mind.
“Why are
these two “Republicans” saying no?” he asked about Mr. Kemp and Mr.
Raffensperger’s refusal to contest the results. “If we win Georgia, everything
falls in place!”
Michael D.
Shear contributed reporting from Washington.
Jonathan
Martin is a national political correspondent. He has reported on a range of
topics, including the 2016 presidential election and several state and
congressional races, while also writing for Sports, Food and the Book Review.
He is also a CNN political analyst. @jmartnyt
Astead W.
Herndon is a national political reporter based in New York. He was previously a
Washington-based political reporter and a City Hall reporter for The Boston
Globe. @AsteadWesley
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