The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump expected to headline Georgia rally
The former president is said to be buildinga pro-trump slate for ’22.
At Donald Trump’s last rally in Georgia, he promised to return to the state in 18 months to campaign for a slate of supporters on the 2022 ticket. He’s set to easily beat that timeline with a major event this month.
The former president plans to headline a rally Sept. 25 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, according to several organizers, one of a string of political events he’s headlining across the nation through his Save America PAC.
Though Trump’s aides would not publicly confirm the timing of the event, officials involved in the planning expect it to go forward, barring an unexpected
development. That means the former president is likely to hold court in front of thousands of supporters alongside a pro-trump ticket he has helped recruit and
has endorsed for office.
Leading the slate is former University of Georgia football
player Herschel Walker, who entered the race for the U.S. Senate at Trump’s urging and instantly became the front-runner among Republicans, despite his long-standing residency in Texas and his history of violent behavior.
Trump also backed state Sen. Burt Jones for lieutenant governor — and disavowed Jones’ GOP rival, state Senate leader Butch Miller. Trump previously endorsed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice to unseat Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump has scapegoated for his 2020 defeat.
Still unclear is whether the former president will throw his support behind a challenger to Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump has also blamed for his narrow defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in November. At his last Georgia rally, in Dalton on the eve of the January U.S. Senate runoffs, Trump promised to exact revenge on the governor.
“I’ll be here in about a year-and-a-half campaigning against your governor, I guarantee you,” Trump said at the time.
Back then, the president was pleading with U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, the third-place finisher in the Senate special election for Kelly Loeffler’s seat, to challenge Kemp. But Collins ruled out a 2022 run for office, and no other wellknown conservative challenger has stepped forward.
Some anti-kemp Republicans have rallied around Vernon Jones, a former Democrat. But Trump has so far steered clear of backing the ex-state legislator, who has a long record of opposing GOP policies and a history of misconduct toward women.
Trump’s allies have also failed so far to persuade former U.S. Sen. David Perdue to enter the race or lure other high-profile Republicans who could rival Kemp.
The governor, meanwhile, has frequently praised Trump’s agenda and sidestepped any chance to criticize him. Kemp and his allies have called for unity as they prepare for an expected Democratic ticket topped by two formidable candidates for U.S. senator and governor: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams, respectively.
In the final days of his presidency, Trump campaigned intensely in Georgia, holding two rallies before the November election in Rome and Middle Georgia, and two more in Valdosta and Dalton ahead of the January runoffs.
The latter rallies were designed to bolster the reelection campaigns of Loeffler and Perdue, but instead were dominated by Trump’s baseless grievances about voter irregularities that sent conservative voters mixed messages.
Hundreds of thousands of Republicans who voted in the November election didn’t show up for the runoffs. The most severe drop-offs were in the regions around Dalton and Valdosta, where Trump held his January events.
Trump has been obsessed with Georgia since his defeat. Besides endorsing downticket candidates, he has sent dozens of mass emails haranguing Kemp, Raffensperger and other Georgia officials while promoting false claims of election fraud.
That narrative has seeped deep into the consciousness of GOP candidates, many of whom have centered their election campaigns on Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him.