Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have both made appearances across Georgia. Now it’s up to the voters to decide who will win the state’s 16 electoral votes. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Soon it will all be over.
After months of campaign visits, nonstop advertisements and weird conversations with friends and neighbors, the end of the 2024 presidential election is in sight. Election Day is Tuesday, capping off a madcap season in swing state Georgia.
Whether you’re facing the day with anticipation or dread, here’s a look back at some of the stories and photos that defined this historic race.
Debate, Biden drops out, Harris ascends
Until this summer, most Americans believed the 2024 election would be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. But a poor showing in an Atlanta debate intensified questions about Biden’s age and mental performance, and Biden eventually exited the race, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump and his Republican allies cried foul, claiming that her selection defied the will of primary voters, but that argument did not seem to hold sway among Democrats, who reacted with an initial wave of enthusiasm, though the race has narrowed to more or less even, according to polls.
Trump survives assassination attempt
On July 13, at a rally near Butler Pennsylvania, a shooter nearly assassinated Trump, firing a bullet that narrowly missed his skull. The former president suffered a flesh wound to his ear but survived after members of the Secret Service rushed to cover him and shot the would-be assassin dead.
One member of the audience was killed and two others were critically injured.
The FBI has not released a motive for the shooting, but the agency has stated that the shooter acted alone and viewed the event as a “target of opportunity.” The attack did not have an immediate impact on the polls between Trump and Biden, but photos of Trump raising his fist and shouting “fight!” became instantly iconic, and “Trump took a bullet for democracy” has become a popular slogan on t-shirts and rallies.
VP picks
Trump announced his vice presidential pick on the first day of the Republican National Convention in July: Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
Vance, an author, venture capitalist and retired Marine, was a reliable conservative vote during his time in the Senate, and some interpreted the selection of a freshman Senator from a safely Republican state as a sign of confidence against Biden, his then-opponent.
Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her VP pick on Aug. 5.
Walz is a former Congressman, teacher and football coach, and he served in the Army National Guard. Walz lists providing free meals to school kids and expanding paid family leave as among his top accomplishments as governor, and progressives took his nomination as a sign that they would be part of Harris’ coalition.
Trust in elections
After the last election, a mob of people broke into the U.S. Capitol who misguidedly believed the results had been rigged. Evidence of that has yet to turn up in multiple recounts or court hearings, but many still believe the 2020 election may have been stolen, including Trump.
In an effort to restore their confidence and keep them casting ballots, the GOP-led legislature has passed contentious election reform bills and revamped the State Election Board, removing power from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Some of the board’s most controversial changes will not be in place this year as the state Supreme Court considers their validity.
Trump and his surrogates have been urging supporters to have faith in the system and to vote early – a departure from his previous mistrust of anything other than in-person Election Day voting – and the extent to which that message reaches low-propensity conservative voters could be determinative in a close race.
Democratic voters largely say they are more confident in the accuracy of the results but say they fear Trump attempting to overturn the election if he loses.
Hot button issues
The end of Roe vs. Wade represented a seismic shift in American law and may have helped Democrats stave off a red wave in the 2022 midterm elections.
Harris’ campaign is focusing much of its messaging on expanding abortion access, targeting groups like young and suburban women voters, who could help sway the race in her favor. She has invoked the names of Georgia women Amber Thurman and Candi Miller whose deaths advocates blame on Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
Trump has bragged about appointing the justices who overturned Roe, but he has more recently said he would veto a national abortion ban and that his only intention was to return the issues to the states.
Trump prefers to instead focus on issues that he believes favor his campaign, especially the economy and immigration. Trump has promised to employ the largest mass deportation effort in American history to remove migrants living here now and to finish building the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Though undocumented migrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens, the former president has highlighted the stories of people killed by undocumented migrants, including Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by a Venezuelan man in February.
Harris has called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants but also pledged a hardline approach to the border. She said if elected, she will push for a bipartisan border bill that would increase border personnel, restrict asylum access and cut off border crossings if they reach a certain threshold and sought to blame Trump for killing the bill’s chances of passing under Biden to help the former president’s campaign.
Another albatross around Harris’ neck could be Biden’s handling of Israel’s attacks in Gaza which have been ongoing since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. An Oct. 5 Harvard Harris poll found 65% of those surveyed disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, one of his lowest-polled issues.
Some polls suggest Arab and young voters could be turned off by the lack of space between Biden and Harris on the war, and if they stay home on Election Day, that could spell doom for the VP’s chances in swing states.
Trump-Kemp relations
Trump and Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were once thick as thieves, but their relationship entered a rocky era after Kemp refused to support Trump’s claims of election interference in Georgia.
Trump accused Kemp of disloyalty and even put forth a hand-picked candidate to defeat him in the 2022 primary, but the governor proved more popular than the former president among Peach State Republicans.
As recently as an August rally in Atlanta, Trump accused Kemp of trying to sabotage the state for Republicans, and criticized Georgia first lady Marty Kemp, who previously told a reporter she would likely write in her husband’s name rather than vote for Trump.
Kemp has not appeared at any of Trump’s many Georgia rallies, but the governor has publicly said that he wants Republicans to win up and down the ticket, and that he thinks Harris’ policies would be bad for the country.
Kemp did recently share a stage at an event with VP nom Vance, and shook hands with Trump at an event outlining the state response to Hurricane Helene.
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