President Donald Trump paid a visit to Perry, Ga. on Saturday to campaign on behalf of his Republican allies during this vital midterm season. As Republicans try to maintain control of Congress, Georgia has found itself once again in the national spotlight.
This month’s Harvard Youth Poll shows that Republicans face a wide deficit among Gen Z voters, with Democrats leading by as much as 37%. The Perry rally might have been one of the GOP’s final chances to win over young adults in Georgia’s gubernatorial and Senate races.
After an introduction from Macon-native country music star Jason Aldean, Trump took to the podium to speak on immigration and public safety concerns across the state and country.
“Atlanta, under these Democrats, has become a dangerous hellhole, and it has to be fixed,” Trump said. He suggested that gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, who was in attendance, may send National Guardsmen into Atlanta if he is elected.
For Wesleyan College freshman Lillian Straessley, that idea feels pretty sound.
“I’ve been to Atlanta a couple times, it’s not a great area right now,” Straessley said. “One of my teammates, she’s gotten strong-armed trying to get into her car at the mall.”
Trump also brought some big news to Middle Georgia. He confirmed that Audi will build a new factory in Peach County. The $4 billion plant is expected to bring more than 4,500 jobs and further push the president’s vision for a fully domestic auto industry.
Job creation promised by Trump and his Senate endorsee Mike Collins attracts young blue-collar workers like John Burkhalther, but local politics aren’t always at the top of the list for the young Republican. Burkhalter said that, despite a rising cost of living, he wants to see the U.S. reach peace with Iran before anything else.
“I’d like to see a good change, the war coming to an end. Everybody wants peace,” he said.
Trump didn’t spare many of his opponents in the rally. He blamed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms for rising crime rates during her tenure as Atlanta’s mayor — rhetoric that Bottoms’s opponent Jackson has used throughout his campaign.
For Republican voters like recent graduate Steve Landers, this election means finally putting Democrats to bed. The 22-year-old said that he wants to see representatives like Ilhan Omar put in prison for corruption.
Trump used much of his time to drag down Collins’s opponent Jon Ossoff, citing the senator’s opposition to the Laken Riley Act and other anti-immigration bills.
He told the crowd, “He’s gonna run and terminate your second amendment. He’s gonna want to do everything he can do. What the hell? How could Georgia vote for this?”
That Georgian identity caught wind throughout the rally. Trump referenced his tax cuts to inherited properties and overtime pay as a tribute to the South’s blue-collar hearts. He added that Jackson and Collins’s proposed tax cuts are a reflection of his.
“I am on the ballot essentially,” Trump said.
That’s become the theme for Republicans in this election. In each of his rallies this month, Trump told supporters to vote like he’s there. Republicans will have to find out if Trump loyalty is enough to keep Georgia red, or if it has become a deterrent of undecided young voters.
Nathaniel Jordan '29 is a Journalism and Anthropology major at Mercer, and plans to become an investigative journalist. He enjoys older pleasures like reading the Sunday paper and frequents local parks with his wife and son.
