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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, leads Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in Georgia, a critical swing state in this year's election, but the gap is tightening, according to recent polls.
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Harris on July 21 following what many considered a poor debate performance against Trump on the CNN debate stage in Atlanta in late June.
In 2020, Biden won against Trump in Georgia by just over 12,600 votes (49.5 to 49.3 percent). Now that Harris has replaced Biden, the pressure is on for her to hold on to swing states that Biden won by slim margins in 2020. Right now, it is looking like a toss-up in the Peach State.
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Polling aggregator FiverThirtyEight showed Trump's lead over Harris in Georgia tighten this month. On July 30, Trump was ahead of Harris by 1.4 percentage points, with a polling average of 45.6 percent to Harris' 44.2 percent. By August 11, Trump lost 1 percentage point. The former president's new polling average is 45.8 percent while Harris' is 45.4 percent.
Newsweek had reached out to Harris' and Trump's campaigns via email for comment on Sunday afternoon.
A poll conducted by Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research between July 24 and 31 found that Harris and Trump were tied at 48 percent in Georgia. The poll, commissioned by AARP, surveyed 1,254 likely voters in the Peach State. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
In a poll conducted by InsiderAdvantage and the Trafalgar Group from July 29 to 30, Trump was ahead of Harris by 2 percentage points (49 to 47 percent) in Georgia. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 3.47 percent. Newsweek has reached out to PollingPlus, which released the poll's findings, asking for the poll's sample size.
A Public Policy Polling survey commissioned by Democratic super PAC Progress Action Fund found Harris narrowly leading Trump in Georgia (48 to 47 percent). The poll was conducted from July 29 to 30, surveyed 662 Georgia voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
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Trump Calls Georgia Governor Brian Kemp 'a Bad Guy'
The former president seemed to make waves at a campaign rally he held on August 3 at Georgia State University's Convocation Center, where he called Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp "a bad guy."
"He's a disloyal guy, and he's a very average governor. Little Brian, little Brian Kemp," Trump said.
Kemp refused to help Trump in his alleged scheme to overturn Biden's 2020 election win in the state. Trump is facing charges in Georgia for the alleged scheme, along with over a dozen of his current and former allies. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, claiming the case is politically motivated.
State Senator Larry Walker III, a member of the Georgia Senate's Republican leadership, told the Wall Street Journal in an article published on Sunday, "I thought any kind of bad blood had blown over, and I don't know why President Trump would want to reopen that wound and attack a very popular governor."
Walker warned that these "unproductive and unwarranted" comments from Trump "will make it more difficult" to win Georgia.
Meanwhile, Ryan Mahoney, a longtime Georgia political strategist who has worked for Republicans like Kemp, called it "political suicide."
"We've seen this movie before, and the former president's baseless and ill-advised remarks will make it damn near impossible for Republicans to prevail in November," Mahoney told the Journal.
It is unclear what effect Trump's comments had on Georgia voters as polling in the state since August 3 has been scarce.
Update 8/14/24, 2:03 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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