President Donald Trump and his campaign advisors know that Georgia could be a swing state in the 2020 presidential election, even though he won it by 5 points in 2016. In this context, he wants to chip away at the black vote that traditionally goes to Democrats. So he choose Atlanta to launch his new African-American coalition at a 3pm Georgia World Congress Center rally this Friday.
The president will inaugurate the Black Voices for Trump Coalition at the Atlanta convention center after a pricey fundraiser in the city’s Buckhead business section to support the 2020 re-election of U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.
Trump will no doubt highlight recent statistics that show historically low jobless rates for black workers as well as tout a Republican opportunity zone program designed to encourage investors to pump money into struggling low-income areas. Vice President Mike Pence is also scheduled to speak at the rally.
Insiders say the Trump campaign chose Atlanta for this rollout because it is a well-known epicenter of black life. And in past Georgia appearances the president has praised the support of various local black leaders including Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Bruce Levell of Dunwoody, a leader in Trump’s black outreach movement.
Defeated Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and other Democrats won the African-American electorate by a huge margin in 2018. Exit polls showed 94% of black voters backed Abrams over Republican Brian Kemp in the 2016 governor’s race. And in 2016 only 8 percent of black voters nationally voted for Trump. But in tight 2020 contests in key Electoral College states, boosting the black percentage by even a point or two could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
