Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Zebulon. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
ZEBULON, GEORGIA – With less than two weeks until the election, former President Donald Trump stumped at a church in a rural community south of Atlanta before holding a rowdy rally at a packed arena in Gwinnett County just northeast of the city.
Trump’s first stop in Georgia was Zebulon, a small town of about 1,300 named after one of the tribes of Israel from the Bible, in Pike County, which gave the former president more than 85% of its votes in 2020.
Little Zebulon served as a backdrop for the “Believers and Ballots” town hall, which was nominally focused on religious issues and hosted by steadfast Trump ally Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who hails from nearby Butts County.
Televangelist Ralph Reed, founder of the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the evangelical vote could be crucial in deciding the Nov. 5 election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“My organization, Faith and Freedom Coalition, has already knocked on 7,336,000 doors,” Reed said. “We’re not telling anybody who to vote for, but we are darn sure informing them on what the media will not, which is where these two candidates stand on the issues, where they stand on taxes, on the border, on the sanctity of innocent human life, on the Iran nuclear deal, and on standing with Israel.”
Supporters cheer outside a Donald Trump rally in Zebulon. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Trump took friendly questions from members of the supportive audience, which at times interrupted proceedings with shouts of adoration. Nobody asked about abortion, a thorny issue for the former president, who seeks to balance the anti-abortion evangelical electorate with more moderate women voters who are often inclined to support access to abortion.
In the past, Trump has boasted about appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the federal right to an abortion, but he has more recently sought to cast himself as more moderate, saying his only goal was to return the matter to the states.
In response to a question on the importance of the Christian vote, Trump expressed confidence that the faithful would vote for him and pledged to support religious freedom.
Trump also touted his record on Israel and criticized President Joe Biden’s approach on the current war in the region. Trump said if he is re-elected rival nations will be too afraid of him to attack U.S. allies.
“So many people support Israel, so much more than just the Jewish people, it’s so many Christians, they’re so supportive of Israel,” Trump said. “And you know, they say, and I want to agree with this 100%, nobody’s done what I’ve done for Israel.”
After a few more friendly questions, Trump announced he would address the crowd outside the venue. Outside a side door, a stage had been erected and Secret Service officers had established a security perimeter, allowing Trump to hold a mini rally ahead of his stop in Duluth, where he said he was optimistic at his chances of victory, criticized Harris and expressed sorrow at the fact that the election will soon be over.
“In many ways, it’s sad, because we’re down to 12 days,” he said. “We’ve been doing this together for nine years, and it’s down to 12 days. We had the biggest rallies, the most beautiful people, the most — It’s just been an amazing thing. There’s never been anything like it in the history of the country. I don’t think there’s been anything like it even in the history of the world.”
But it was also the ticking clock that left some political observers puzzled over the Trump campaign’s decision to do a smaller event targeting evangelicals so close to the election. Voting has been underway in Georgia for more than a week, with more than 2 million ballots already cast.
Chris Grant, who chairs Mercer University’s Department of Political Science, said the move suggests the Trump campaign is trying to shore up its support with evangelical voters in the homestretch.
“What are you seeing that you think that the best deployment of your principal is to go to a relatively obscure church in a small town in a rural area of Georgia? That’s odd,” Grant said.
Former President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones at a rally in Zebulon. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Dueling church appearances
Trump’s stop at Christ Chapel in Zebulon came days after Vice President Kamala Harris visited two churches in metro Atlanta as part of a “souls to the polls” push to drive up Black voter turnout. Polls have suggested that Black support is lagging when compared to past elections.
The two rival campaign events offered a stark split screen, with Trump mostly sticking to his standard campaign pledges like a crackdown on undocumented migrants.
“The biggest problem to me is the border, where they allow murderers into our country, they allow prisoners into our country, they empty out their prisons from all over the world. And to me, it’s the biggest problem that we have. I think it’s the number one thing, and we’re going to do something. We’re going to do something to stop it very quickly,” Trump said on stage at the church.
In Harris’ remarks behind the pulpit, she cited scripture and talked about the parable of the good Samaritan, prompting someone in the audience to yell “Preach!” She highlighted examples of Georgians helping one another in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which devastated a wide swath of the state.
“As we move forward, let us look at where we are and understand the lesson of the Gospel of Luke, because right now, each of us has an opportunity to make a difference. In this moment, our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith,” Harris said.
“We face this question: What kind of country do we want to live in — a country of chaos, fear, and hate or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?” she added.
Harris is set to campaign with former President Barack Obama in metro Atlanta Thursday.
Chasing votes
Trump’s stop in Duluth comes about a week after he held another rally in the north Atlanta suburbs, that time in Cobb County.
The Duluth event was organized by Turning Point Action and Turning Point PAC and included a long list of conservative stars like the organizations’ founder Charlie Kirk and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and top Trump surrogates like former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and a former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Country music star and Georgia native Jason Aldean also plugged Trump on stage.
“This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence, failure and disaster or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” Trump said at Gas South Arena.
At his Duluth rally, the GOP presidential candidate stuck to mostly familiar themes, especially immigration, during a sprawling hour-and-a-half speech before a spirited crowd of supporters.
There was cheering, laughing and booing aimed at Harris inside the high-energy rally, but even longtime supporters like Tracy and Jeff Hydock, who live in Cleveland in north Georgia, say they know that outside the arena, the race remains competitive in Georgia.
But Tracy Hydock, who is a Trump campaign volunteer and longtime supporter, said she believes the strong early voting turnout bodes well for Trump.
“I think everybody is just fed up with crap,” she said. “And I think everybody feels like they were cheated last time and that we’re not going to get cheated this time.”
President Joe Biden’s narrow win in Georgia was upheld after three counts, including one done by hand, and after failed attempts to challenge the results in court.
At a press conference held before Trump’s Duluth rally, state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Duluth Democrat, and other Georgia Democrats blasted Trump’s record on reproductive rights, including his role in overturning the federal right to abortion.
Parkes said she sees Trump’s visit to Gwinnett County – one of the most diverse counties in the country – as an attempt to reach Georgia’s minority communities.
“He’s going to fail miserably at that,” Parkes told reporters Wednesday.
“These policies and the abortion bans disproportionately affect minorities, women of color, and so we’re going to fight back and make sure we deliver Gwinnett for Vice President Kamala Harris, and for all of our elections as well,” she said, referring to state legislative races.
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