Kamala Harris challenges Donald Trump to debate at Georgia rally

Kamala Harris is taking her nascent presidential campaign to Georgia, and some Democrats are now considering contesting the state in a hotly contested election.

Vice President presided over the convening At a star-studded campaign rally in Atlanta on Tuesday, she challenged Republican rival Donald Trump to meet her on the debate stage.

Pop star Megan Thee Stallion and rapper and singer Quavo performed, and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock also spoke to an audience of about 10,000.

A month ago, a Democratic victory in the battleground state was a long shot, but some analysts now believe a new face and a new energy could change everything.

Ms Harris replaced Mr Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee after the president announced he was withdrawing from the race.

“This is a reset button in many ways,” Amy Morton, chief executive of Georgia-based consultancy Southern Majority, told the BBC.

“It completely changed the landscape of Georgia.”

Addressing a raucous crowd on stage in Atlanta on Tuesday night, Ms. Harris said the momentum of the campaign was changing.

She described her “people-powered” campaign as an underdog in the race but noted how Biden won the state in 2020.

“I know very well that the road to the White House runs through this state,” she said.

Ms. Harris later turned to a topic for September’s presidential debate that Mr. Trump has yet to fully commit to.

“Donald, I do hope you will reconsider meeting me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, if you have something to say, say it to my face.”

Swing states like Georgia, which Biden narrowly won in 2020, are extremely competitive because they lean either Republican or Democratic and play a decisive role in the presidential election.

Republicans are seeking to flip the state back to red.

Donald Trump will also campaign in Atlanta on Saturday at the same venue as Ms Harris to solidify his support in the swing state.

Rep. Hank Jackson, D-Ga., told BBC News that “enthusiasm has exploded” since Ms. Harris became the nominee, adding that she “activated … all demographics.”

Democrats in Georgia, which has one of the largest African American populations in the country, have relied heavily on strong turnout among black voters.

Charles Bullock, a professor at the University of Georgia, told BBC News that polls show the state is moving away from Biden.

He added that the state was on Ms. Harris’s “watch list,” noting that she had visited more than a dozen times.

In a campaign strategy memo, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon listed Georgia as one of several Sun Belt states, along with North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, where the campaign The team plans to focus on these states through November.

Before Biden dropped out of the race, Ms. Morton, a Georgia Democratic political consultant, said she was worried about voter turnout, finding that many people in Georgia were less engaged than when 2020 broke records.

But now “things have completely changed,” she said.

“We have reworked all our plans to account for the higher turnout because the enthusiasm on the ground was much more palpable than it was in early June.”

Ms Morton said she had seen an increase in volunteer sign-ups and social media engagement for candidates on the ballot since Ms Harris entered the race.

Recent polls show Ms. Harris leading Mr. Trump among registered voters nationally, 43% to 42%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey.

Ms. Morton said she believes those gaps will only grow, especially among Georgia voters.

But Trump still enjoys strong support in the state.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the state’s Republican congresswoman, said Georgia is “Trump country.” She tweeted details of his activities on Saturday and claimed Ms Harris was a “radical extremist”.

Ms. Harris has come under attack for her unique role as vice president in handling the crisis at the southern border and her efforts to stem immigration at the source.

Despite Georgia’s distance, the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student allegedly killed by a Venezuelan who entered the United States illegally, has made immigration issues even more important to Georgia voters.

At Tuesday’s rally, Ms. Harris said she would revive the border security bill she said Mr. Trump helped kill and sign it into law.

She also touted her experience visiting underground tunnels along the California border and working as a prosecutor against human traffickers

Mr. Bullock said Trump must be careful in his messaging to Georgia voters. He said his personal attacks on Ms. Harris — rather than her policies — could alienate female voters who find him offensive.

Trump allies attacked Ms Harris’ background, claiming she was a “DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) employee”.

Ms. Harris can also win support in the state by appealing to a large group of establishment Republican voters who are less supportive of Trump.

“Some of them — and these may be white, college-educated voters — may find Trump offensive, they may not like the chaos of his administration, they may not like his disgust,” Bullock said. Gynecomastia.