By Bo Erickson
Trumpâs speech in the Atlanta suburbs follows months of attacks on Georgiaâs election system, which he has criticized since his 2020 loss in the state. So far this year, the president has questioned Georgiaâs voting system at least nine times during public events and interviews, according to a Reuters review.
In a June podcast, Trump falsely said the 2020 election in Georgia was rigged. Days later, during a telephone rally for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Trump said: âOur elections are corrupt.â
On Wednesday, Trump said some Republican victories in the state were ânot going to be that easy with the cheating and everything else going on.â
He urged supporters to call Senate Majority Leader John Thune and pressure him to push through his administrationâs election bill imposing stricter voting requirements nationwide.
The Georgia rally was Trumpâs first campaign event since a prime-time White House speech last week in which he questioned the security of U.S. elections.
The president traveled to Marietta in a politically competitive part of the state after attending a ceremony for four U.S. service members killed in recent Iranian attacks in the Middle East.
Some Georgia Republicans worry Trumpâs rhetoric could backfire by discouraging turnout in Novemberâs midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.
âPresident Trumpâs supporters are less likely to turn out when he casts doubt on the validity on the election process,â said Eric Johnson, the former Republican leader of the Georgia Senate and state chair for RightCount, a conservative group that defends state-run elections.
TRUMP PRESSES ELECTION SECURITY AS ISSUE FOR MIDTERMS
The 2020 election remains a central focus for Trump, particularly in Georgia where administration officials have launched investigations into the handling of the vote.
After losing Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump pressured the stateâs top election official to âfindâ enough votes to overturn the result, and repeatedly challenged the electionâs legitimacy. Multiple recounts confirmed Bidenâs victory.
The issue of election security has featured in the stateâs competitive Senate race, where Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is running for reelection against Republican U.S. Representative Mike Collins. A Fox News poll in July showed Ossoff leading Collins by 13 percentage points among registered voters.
Ossoff has challenged Trumpâs voting claims and called him the âworldâs most famous sore loser.â Collins has backed the presidentâs push for stricter voting requirements and told CNN in June that he believes Trump won the 2020 race in Georgia.
On Wednesday, Trump cast Collins as a reliable ally who supported tax cuts for Georgians and would bring federal investment to the state. The president called Ossoff a âterribleâ senator and repeated his claim that some progressive members of the Democratic Party are âcommunists.â
Collins said he skipped Trumpâs rally on Wednesday in order to cast votes in Washington, a move Trump praised as he urged voters to support the Republican in November.
Georgia law already requires voters to show identification to vote, and the stateâs Republican leaders also passed voting rules after the 2020 election that limited ballot drop boxes and absentee ballots.
Several Republican voters interviewed at Trumpâs rally on Wednesday said, however, that they still do not trust the voting process.
âRepublicans are frustrated because they donât see the reason to vote because they know thereâs going to be cheating,â said Rita Rohrssen, an 80-year-old retired registered nurse from Woodstock, Georgia.
âBut you have to vote anyway.â
(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Marietta, Georgia; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman and Edmund Klamann)