Republicans brace for Trump rally in Georgia that could make or break Senate runoffs
by Rob Crilly, White House Correspondent |
| December 05, 2020 06:00 AM
President Trump will fly into Georgia on Saturday in a test of whether his star power and bully pulpit are enough to unite a splintering local Republican Party that threatens to undermine GOP hopes of holding two Senate seats and overall control of the upper chamber of Congress.
The tensions offer a foreshadowing of what some insiders fear will be months of score-settling as Trump loyalists accuse mainstream Republicans of failing to back the president’s claims of a rigged election.
Trump will hold a rally in the conservative city of Valdosta, where Republicans hope he can mobilize supporters to vote for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in crucial runoff elections. At the same time, however, they fear his barrage of attacks on the state party over his election defeat could keep his base at home.
Local Republican strategist Brian Robinson said Trump’s appearance was a pivotal moment, potentially dividing the Senate races into “before Saturday†and “after Saturday†phases.
But the unspoken fear for Saturday’s rally is a crowd of thousands directing “Lock him up†chants at state officials, such as Gov. Brian Kemp, while Trump delivers a 90-minute diatribe against disloyal Republicans who have not overturned his election defeat.
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