With appearances from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and Chris Christie at the Georgia GOP Convention, and Jeb Bush and Scott Walker already scheduling events, the Peach State is getting quite a lot of attention from the scrum of Republican hopefuls as they gear up for what promises to be a dogfight of a primary.
The GOP isn’t alone in their courting of Georgia voters though – Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton will be in town Thursday for a fundraiser following a trip to all-important South Carolina, where she famously lost to Barack Obama in 2008’s primary. While South Carolina with its early primary date has long been considered the most important southern state, (excluding Florida, which has its own political ecosystem) the SEC primary has given increased importance to Georgia, and already we’re seeing that pay off in the form of campaign stops and fundraisers.
Expect the fun to keep on going through the summer as the candidates look to innovate their strategies to play around Florida’s new winner-take-all primary. With two well funded candidates already gobbling up the vast majority of support in the sunshine state, it may make more sense for the others to focus on the “SEC primary” in an attempt to carry build a lead. Already Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who will be in Georgia next Monday, has alluded to the fact that he may skip campaigning in Florida entirely, leaving Bush and Rubio to slug out a wildly expensive two man race that would likely end the loser’s presidential aspirations.
Hillary has substantially less on her plate. Already grassroots efforts for the former First Lady have kicked off here in Georgia as the campaign takes advantage of its fleshed out infrastructure and deep pockets that combined with a shallow Democratic primary field mean that Hillary has what appears to be a straight shot to the general election in 2016.
Mitt Romney carried the state by nearly 8 points in 2012, so it wouldn’t appear that the eventual Republican nominee would have much to worry about here after fighting through a bloody primary. (Very) early polling though suggests that Hillary stands up well to some of her GOP rivals; a Public Policy Polling survey from late 2014 shows her trailing only Jeb Bush in Georgia among 7 of the Republican hopefuls.
