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Los Angeles Times

Politics

Janet Hook and Jenny Jarvie

In final week, Biden hits Georgia and Trump stumps in Midwest

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff gets a warm welcome from Biden supporters as he arrives for Presidential candidate Joe Biden's visit to Georgia at a drive-in event at the amphitheatre at Lakewood on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. — With just one week until Election Day, Joe Biden campaigned into GOP-leaning Georgia on Tuesday to evoke the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt, making a trip that showcased both his confidence in the election outcome and the ambitions of his governing agenda.

Speaking in a tiny town of 425 where Roosevelt built a retreat to take healing waters for his polio, Biden offered his closing argument that he would be able to heal the wounds opened by the Trump presidency.

"Our politics for too long have been mean and bitter and divisive, you can hear it now in the distance" Biden said, referring to the sound of pro-Trump protesters who gathered near the venue. "I tell you this from my heart. I believe in an America of hope, not fear; unity, not division; love, not hate."

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden takes off his jacket, arriving at his drive-in rally event during his visit to Georgia at the amphitheatre at Lakewood on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

"This place, Warm Springs, is a reminder that, though broken, each of us can be healed. That as a people and a country, we can overcome this devastating virus. ... And, yes, we can restore our soul and save our country."

Biden, who has compared the magnitude of the next president's challenge to the ones that faced Roosevelt in the Great Depression, said he would "clear the decks" as president to move quickly to address the health, economic and racial crises roiling the nation.

Calling Trump "dangerously incompetent," Biden said, "I'm ready to act. I know what to do. Starting on day one of my presidency, we will do it."

Former president Barack Obama waves during a stop at a Biden Victory Center to thank volunteers in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, October 27, 2020. Earlier in the day Obama rallied Biden supporters at a drive-in rally at Tinker Field in Orlando. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

While Biden took the campaign fight to Trump-friendly political turf, the president kept up his scramble across battleground states he won in 2016 and cannot afford to lose now, moving at a frenetic pace he hopes will build for a come-from-behind victory.

With most polls showing him the underdog, Trump is pursuing a final-week strategy that is the mirror image of Biden's.

The former vice president is playing offense by campaigning in states Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 with a message of bipartisanship and unity. Trump is on defense, barnstorming on his own 2016 turf, focusing on firing up his political base with few gestures that would bring undecided voters to his side.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally event during his visit to Georgia at the amphitheatre at Lakewood on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

While Biden has maintained a light campaign schedule in recent days, Trump was scheduled to plow through three rallies Tuesday in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. In Omaha, he is seeking a single Electoral College vote he won in 2016 but which Biden is trying to flip. In Nebraska, some Electoral College votes are allocated by congressional district.

Their surrogates and supporters are also fanning out for a final sprint that reinforced the picture of Trump on the defense and Biden mostly on offense.

Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday was in North Carolina, a Trump state in 2016 that Republicans have lost only once in presidential elections since 1976. Kamala Harris is due to campaign in another big-reach state, Texas, on Friday. But on Tuesday, she campaigned in Nevada — one of the few states Democrats won in 2016 that Trump has a shot at flipping.

Lending a hand to Biden's effort to expand the political map, aides to Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former 2020 presidential rival, said he is increasing his campaign ad buy in Florida and putting $15 million into Texas and Ohio.

While Democrats believe they have a shot in GOP-leaning states like Georgia and Iowa, where Biden is scheduled to campaign later this week, those states remain a reach. The Biden trips may have as much to do with the FDR symbolism and down-ballot politics.

Both states have closely contested Senate races where the Democratic candidates would benefit from a turnout boost. If nothing else, pushing into Trump territory forces the president's cash-strapped campaign to shift resources.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks at Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's drive-in rally event during his visit to Georgia at the amphitheatre at Lakewood on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

Some Democrats worry about Biden's relatively light schedule. And for some, the trips to Georgia and Iowa provoked anxious recollections of 2016, when Clinton made late-campaign visits to Republican-leaning states like Arizona and Ohio while apparently taking for granted Democratic leaning states like Wisconsin, which Trump then won.

A Democrat has not won a presidential race in Georgia since Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush by less than one 1 point in 1992.

But Georgia has become gradually more competitive in the last decade. Since 2016, the state has added more than 1 million new voters — many younger and more diverse — to the rolls. In the 2018 race for governor, Gov. Brian Kemp beat Stacey Abrams by just 1.4%.

Ted Nugent plays the National Anthem before President Donald Trump addresses supporters during his Make America Great Again Victory Rally at AV Flight at the Capital Region International Airport in Lansing, Michigan on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. (Todd McInturf/The Detroit News/TNS)

Biden and other Democrats are benefitting from eroding support for the GOP in the suburbs, said Bob Trammell, the Democratic leader in the Georgia House, who attended the Biden event.

"A lot of that is in response to Trump himself, and a lot of it is in response to the fact that Republicans are simply out of step with where the electorate is on a whole range of issues," he said.

Multiple polls show Biden locked in a tight race with Trump in Georgia, which the president won in 2016 by 5 percentage points.

The state's two GOP senators — David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — are also facing tough reelection challenges. Perdue is running in a regular election, and Loeffler, who was appointed to fill a vacancy, is in a special election. Polls indicate that both Senate races are likely to go to runoffs in early January under a state law that mandates a second round if no candidate gets 50%.

Biden's reception in Georgia was not entirely warm. In advance of the event, GOP leaders, including Kemp, held a counterrally to show support for the president.

Trump signs dotted the Roosevelt Highway that leads to the remote West Georgia spa town about 60 miles southeast of Atlanta, and motorbikes and pickup trucks roared across town decked out with Trump banners and U.S. flags.

Supporters respond to former president Barack Obama as he delivers remarks in Orlando, Fla., during a drive-in rally for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at Tinker Field, Tuesday, October 27, 2020. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

"They're in the wrong county promoting socialism," said Joe Stadnik, 62, a truck driver who lives in the nearby town of Hamilton, as he leaned against a pickup truck on the highway outside the resort wearing a Trump 2020 baseball hat and a T-shirt emblazoned with a gray elephant. "They're in the wrong state."

Outside the event a cluster of Trump supporters chanted, "Four more years!"

There were no big crowds of Democrats welcoming Biden, as the campaign has kept its events small and socially distanced because of the pandemic. But a few locals stood outside in the hope of catching a glimpse of the former vice president.

Evan Ernst (left), 8, and his brother Jack Ernst, 10, take in the drive-in rally event from the roof of a car belonging to their father, Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst, for Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden. It was Biden's first visit to Georgia since clinching the party's presidential nomination, at the amphitheatre at Lakewood on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)

"It means so much that he cares about the little people," said Jacquelyn Walton, a 55-year-old Black educator who lives nearby. "He has a good chance of winning Georgia."

Warm Springs is associated with Roosevelt because he built a retreat after discovering that the warm waters of the local springs helped treat his polio. He was at the "Little White House" here when he died in 1945.