Big week ahead in Georgia politics after Harris-Trump debate
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The last time Donald Trump was in a presidential debate, a sitting U.S. president was forced by his own party to drop out of the race.
On Tuesday, Trump will again take the debate stage with an entirely different challenger than the one he faced in Atlanta back in June, when Vice President Kamala Harris and the 45th president of the United States meet in a nationally televised debate in Philadelphia.
Tuesday’s presidential debate is Trump’s seventh such event, while Harris has participated in one national presidential debate during her failed 2020 Democratic primary bid, and one vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence, also in 2020.
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Harris won last month’s Democrat nomination for president after incumbent Joe Biden ended his reelection bid which came in the wake of his disastrous CNN debate against Trump.
After the debate, political leaders on Wednesday are set to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Georgia is remaining a key focus of both campaigns in the debate’s aftermath. Over the weekend, the Harris campaign announced Gwen Walz, wife of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, will be in Georgia as part of the campaign’s “New Way Forward Tour.” Details surrounding the venue and time have not yet been announced.
On Sept. 16, Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, is among the featured speakers at the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition’s victory dinner at the Cobb Galleria Centre.
Walz and Vance have agreed to an Oct. 1 debate hosted by CBS News in New York City.
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In 2020, Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to carry Georgia or any deep Southern state in a general presidential election. After the debate, Harris is set to travel to North Carolina as part of her campaign tour.
The first mail ballots in the Nov. 5, 2024, election last week went out to voters in North Carolina. Voter registration deadlines vary by state, with most falling between eight and 30 days before the election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The deadline is Oct. 7 in Georgia, one of this year’s most prominent presidential battlegrounds.
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Kemp - with whom Trump has had a high-profile, long-running feud which now appears to be cooling - is also headlining next Monday’s event. Other featured speakers are U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and former U.S. congressional representative Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii for four as a Democrat but who left the party after an unsuccessful 2020 White House run.
Georgia U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Barry Loudermilk are also appearing, along with Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, rumored to be a candidate for governor in less than two years.
Notably, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are not listed as featured speakers for the event. Both men are also frequently mentioned as 2026 gubernatorial candidates.
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