Though Donald Trump has done campaign swings through Georgia over the last three months, uncertainty has loomed over the case against him brought by embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) and whether he'd have to stand trial ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
For now, at least, that case is on hold thanks to a Georgia Court of Appeals ruling in early June which effectively "[stayed] any further proceedings in the matter, pending the outcome of the appeal" Trump filed over Judge Scott McAfee's decision not to remove Willis as long as lead prosecutor Nathan Wade stepped down from the case.
This has undoubtedly put a big kink in the Democrat lawfare scheme against Trump.
READ MORE: Trump Gets a Big Break in Georgia Criminal Case, Undercuts Democrat Election Plan
So with the case out of sight, out of mind for the time being, the former POTUS has one less distraction to deal with ahead of the hotly anticipated debate coming up Thursday between himself and President Joe Biden, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia and hosted by CNN.
Coming into the debate, Trump will be loaded for bear thanks in part to the long overdue Snopes fact check of the seven-year-old media/Democrat-driven "very fine people" hoax, a lie which Joe Biden launched his 2020 campaign over, and also thanks to fresh polling from the Peach State that shows Trump leading over Biden - the fifth such poll in five weeks to put him firmly on top:
New AJC poll in Georgia: Trump +5.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) June 25, 2024
There have been 5 polls taken over the past 5 weeks in Georgia, and Trump leads by an average of 4.0% in the 2-way race and 5.6% in the 5-way race. https://t.co/2HUcpsigDEhttps://t.co/R7Oy0lpqnO
Here is a breakdown of those numbers:
Trump in good shape so far in Georgia in a five-way race (via @RCPolitics) #GApol https://t.co/JC0SLLRYIt pic.twitter.com/hRpUnxdDpW
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) June 25, 2024
... and in a two-way race. (via @RCPolitics) #GApol https://t.co/AF794RhIcr pic.twitter.com/yfFb2yiGzZ
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) June 25, 2024
Republicans in the state have been quick to shut down talk that the dynamics of the 2024 race in Georgia are the same as they were in late 2020/early 2021:
Statewide, Republicans say Georgia still tilts toward them. Yes, Democrats won statewide four times in Georgia, starting with Biden in 2020, continuing as Jon Ossoff and Warnock swept to twin victories in a 2021 runoff that clinched Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, and culminating in Warnock’s reelection in 2022. But GOP Gov. Brian Kemp won a second term as governor in 2022 over Democrat Stacy Abrams by a comfortable margin, sweeping down-ballot offices along the way.
Regardless, Georgia - like North Carolina - is not a state that Republicans can just assume is in the bag for them anymore. They've got to fight like hell for every vote and not take a single voting bloc for granted, a strategy that so far seems to be paying off if polling numbers are a reliable indicator.
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