US election 2020: Race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump tight in Georgia
With just a week to go until the November 3 election, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will criss-cross the country on Tuesday in an intense day of campaigning that will also see former President Barack Obama back on the stump.
FollowWashington DC: Trailing Biden in national opinion polls, Trump will hold rallies in three states key to his re-election hopes - Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska - while Biden journeys to Georgia and Obama campaigns on Biden’s behalf in critical Florida.
The 2020 US presidential campaign has been unlike any other as a raging coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed more than 225,000 Americans pushes record early voting. More than 64 million votes have been cast so far, approaching half the total 2016 vote, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.
Georgia has been a reliably Republican, conservative bastion and a Democrat has not won in the Peach State since Bill Clinton, a fellow Southerner, in 1992.
But Democratic candidate Joe Biden, 77, and Republican incumbent Donald Trump, 74, are running neck-and-neck in the polls in Georgia.
Trump, who has repeatedly and without evidence claimed that mailed ballots are likely to be subject to fraud, on Monday said on Twitter: “Must have final total on November 3rd.” Twitter flagged the tweet with a disclaimer describing the post’s content as “disputed” and potentially misleading.
Biden’s foray into Georgia, long a Republican stronghold, is a sign of the campaign’s optimism heading into the final week.
Polls show the race there to be tight and win by Biden in Georgia would likely be a severe blow to Trump’s chances. The state hasn’t supported a Democrat in a presidential election since 1992.
Biden told reporters on Monday he believes he has a “fighting chance” to take Georgia.
He will hold an afternoon event in Warm Springs, Georgia - where former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt maintained a vacation home - before capping the day with an evening rally in the state capital, Atlanta.
Flush with cash, Biden’s campaign has been advertising in the state for weeks.
Obama, who has emerged as a top stand-in for Biden down the stretch, will campaign in Orlando after heading up a rally in Miami over the weekend. Biden served as Obama’s vice president for eight years.
Meanwhile Trump’s rally in Nebraska, suggests his campaign is preparing for a close finish. The state apportions three of its five electoral votes by majority vote in its three congressional districts, with the Omaha-area district a potential pick-up opportunity for Biden while the rest of the state is expected to go for Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)
