President Trump's midterm campaign blitz arrived in Georgia on Friday for a rally with top Republican candidates that partly turned into the president repeating his claims about election fraud in the state.
In Dalton, the population center of conservative northwest Georgia, Trump appeared with Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson as part of the White House effort to boost Republican enthusiasm in an election that could reshape the final years of Trump's second presidency.
Yet unlike some of Trump's recent trips to solidly Republican states — Alabama, Montana, Tennessee — Georgia is a critical battleground. That means Jackson, a billionaire businessman, and Collins, a two-term congressman, need more than Trump stalwarts to defeat their respective Democratic opponents, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Sen. Jon Ossoff.
The president asked his supporters to pretend that he was on the ballot, saying that people didn't show up as much when he wasn't up for election.
"This is really, I think, the most important midterm election maybe that we've ever had, because there has never been anything like what we've done. And we can't have them take it away from us or from our country," he said.
He praised Collins as "one of the most respected persons in Washington," saying that he looked like a Hollywood version of a senator. Jackson, Mr. Trump said, was "a great friend of mine" and "an amazing man."
For much of the rally, Mr. Trump took aim at Ossoff, calling the Democratic senator "weak, arrogant, hate-filled, radical-left senator," "highly-overrated," and "Pee-Wee Herman," a derisive nickname he had previous given the senator.
Mr. Trump boasted that he helped Republican Karen Handel defeated Ossoff in a close House race in 2017 by campaigning for her.
"I beat him once and now we're gonna beat him more importantly a second time," he said.
Trump was last in Dalton on Jan. 4, 2021, the day before Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won concurrent Senate runoffs.
The president argued that Ossoff did not defeat Republican Sen. David Perdue that year, tying it in to his presidential election loss in the state and calling it a "rigged election."
"I won the election in Georgia. I won it a lot," Mr. Trump said, calling former President Joe Biden's electoral victory a "crooked deal."
"Ossoff lost that election, but they gave it to him because it was a rigged election. That's the only reason he became a senator. It was a rigged election," the president claimed.
Collins was elected to Congress in 2022, and he's echoed Trump's lies about 2020. He declined to recant those views this week when Ossoff pressed him during a debate.
"There was a lot of doubt in that election. Yes, Joe Biden was the president," Collins said, without saying Biden was duly elected.
"I'm surprised Georgia Republicans want the president here," Ossoff said. "The president coming to town reminds Georgians that Donald Trump and Mike Collins have pushed policies that have "driven the cost of groceries, fuel and healthcare to their all-time highs."
Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said the congressman welcomes the president's attention. But he also stressed that Collins is a "bipartisan workhorse who will work with anybody," while adding that "Ossoff hates Trump more than he loves our state."
Bottoms also seemed thrilled with Trump's visit.
"When Donald Trump says he wants people to imagine that he is on the ballot, I am asking the people of Georgia to do just that," she said, pointing to Jackson's promise to be Trump's "favorite governor."
The risks have been evident even in the heavily Republican corner of Georgia where the president will visit. Voters there sent erstwhile Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress before she broke with the president and resigned. Trump won the district by about 37 points in 2024 and Greene won by 29. In the April special election to replace Greene, Republican Rep. Clay Fuller won by 12 points.
The Dalton event is the first time this fall that Jackson and Collins have appeared at the same venue. That contrasts with Ossoff and Bottoms holding joint rallies across Georgia, with the next scheduled for Saturday in Cobb County outside Atlanta.
Trump endorsed Collins days before his June runoff victory over former football coach Derek Dooley. When announcing his decision, Trump complained that Dooley had conceded that Biden was elected legitimately.
Gov. Brian Kemp did not endorse Collins until September, and he warned voters during the primary that the congressman could not win in November.
Trump did not endorse Jackson until after he'd won a Republican primary runoff over the president's original pick, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who had been part of Trump's effort to overturn Biden's victory. The president cited Jones' loyalty in his endorsement.
Jackson doesn't regularly mention Trump like he did during the primary campaign, when the first-time candidate compared his business background to Trump.
For Tehmurasp "TJ" Kaikobad, who has spent 36 years in Dalton, the presidential visit is a significant moment for a community of its size.
"We're smaller than a small minnow. So any time the president visits, it's a big thing," Kaikobad said.
Kaikobad, chairman of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority and owner of Cyra's restaurant, originally moved to Dalton from Atlanta for what he expected would be a temporary stay.
"When I came up, I told all my friends in Atlanta, 60 days, I'll be out of Dodge back in Atlanta," he said. "At the 45-day mark, I leased a condo."
More than three decades later, he considers Dalton home.
"Folks here gave me a home. So that's why I've never just really never wanted to leave," Kaikobad said.
Born in Pakistan, Kaikobad immigrated to the United States in 1976. He credits Dalton's people and business opportunities with keeping him in northwest Georgia.
Over the years, he has watched downtown Dalton transform from an area struggling with vacant storefronts into a destination attracting new businesses.
Kaikobad recalled a time when roughly 70% to 75% of downtown commercial spaces were vacant. Today, he says, business owners are competing to find available locations.
"Now people are fighting to find an open spot," he said.
He credits improvements to streets, sidewalks, and storefronts, along with business incentives, for helping revitalize downtown.
While Dalton's businesses focus on everyday economic concerns, the president's visit carries broader political implications.
Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie said Dalton's location in Georgia's 14th Congressional District helps explain the decision to hold the rally there.
"The 14th Congressional District is the most Republican congressional district in the state of Georgia," Gillespie said.
She said Mr. Trump won the district by more than 35 percentage points in 2024, making the area politically favorable territory for the president. The president's appearance could help encourage Republican voters to participate in the November election, she posited.
"I think the question is, can Trump energize the faithful in that district such that they then go and turn out their neighbors?" she said.
She also noted that Trump's economic policies, including tariffs, have become a point of debate among voters.
"Inflation hasn't gone away and people are really concerned about the state of the economy," Gillespie said.
Dalton's demographics add another dimension to the visit. The city has a substantial Latino population, including families whose histories are connected to the region's textile and flooring industries.
Gillespie said the president's immigration rhetoric could carry particular significance in a community where immigrant workers have contributed to the local economy.
