GOP bypassing Atlanta, suburbs in quest for votes
ATLANTA — Vice President Mike Pence is seemingly holding rallies everywhere in Georgia lately — except Atlanta and its inner suburbs.
Pence returned Thursday for events in Columbus, on the state’s western edge, and Macon, in middle Georgia, to support Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler before runoff elections on Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate.
The vice president has previously stopped in Augusta in the east, Savannah on the coast and the north Georgia cities of Gainesville and Canton, in the far reaches of metro Atlanta’s exurbs. President Trump rounded out the map with a Dec. 5 rally in Valdosta, in south Georgia.
The anywhere-but-Atlanta strategy is a window into Georgia’s new political geography that put the state this year in the Democrats’ presidential win column for the first time since 1992.
Democrats dominate in the urban areas and in nearby suburbs. Republicans are increasingly dependent on high turnout in rural parts, small towns and small cities.
“The fact is they’re going to places where Republicans have the best margins, trying to energize their voters,” said Brian Robinson, a GOP strategist in Georgia. He noted that the events get statewide media coverage and, therefore, still reach Atlantaarea voters.
“In some of these rural counties, Perdue and Loeffler really need to hit 80plus percent” of the vote, Robinson said.
In Columbus, Pence said it was essential that Perdue and Loeffler remain in the Senate to preserve work done under the outgoing Trump administration. He also refused to acknowledge that he and Trump lost the election.
“We need Georgia to send these two great senators back to Washington because of who they are, because of all that we’ve accomplished together and because a Republican Senate majority could be the last line of defense to preserve all that we’ve done for this country,” Pence said.
Presidentelect Joe Biden came to Georgia on Tuesday for a rally within a few miles of downtown Atlanta in support of Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
A win by either Perdue or Loeffler would keep the Senate in GOP hands. A sweep by Ossoff and Warnock would yield a 5050 split, giving the tiebreaking vote to Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris.