A sign reading 'black voters matter' stands on a roadside in Columbus, Georgia. Reuters

Vivian Childs, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, schooled a roomful of Republicans on how to win over Black voters in the battleground state of Georgia. Focus on Trump’s economic policies, on illegal immigration and inflation, the Black Baptist minister told the gathered group of volunteers and campaign staff at the former president’s newly opened office in the rural city of Valdosta last month, according to Reuters.

Tell voters what Trump has done for them and that he will bring the change America needs, she exhorted. “We are the party of hope,” she said. “We are the party of truth.” There was a mood of urgency at the office, a grand building with white pillars and porches. By Trump’s own admission, Georgia has become a must-win state, one he thought he had locked up until Kamala Harris became his Democratic rival in July. Her late entry ignited a burst of popular enthusiasm, and opinion polls in Georgia show the candidates neck and neck, a huge turnaround from early July when polls showed Trump leading Democratic President Joe Biden by as many as six percentage points. In particular, an intense battle is being waged for the Black voters who make up a third of the state’s population, the biggest proportion of Black voters in any of the seven battleground states that will decide the Nov. 5 presidential election. Trump’s goal of pulling in more Black support has not only been complicated by Harris’ entry, but by Republican-backed voting restrictions that activists say are aimed at putting up barriers to people of color - something the party denies. Childs, part of the national “Black Americans for Trump” coalition of advocates, conceded the nomination of Harris initially changed the race in Georgia. “There was a lot of excitement, absolutely,” she told Reuters. “She’s Black and a woman.”

She insisted that excitement was fading.

“We have got to stop dividing our country based on how we look,” she added. “I’m telling people to talk to Black people the same way they talk to white people: look at President Trump’s resume, his policies, what he’s done for all Americans.” Reuters spoke to three dozen campaign officials, party chairs, local activist groups and allies working on behalf of Trump and Harris to get a sense of each candidate’s operation in the closely fought state that Trump lost to Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in the 2020 election. A senior Trump campaign official, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters, said the team saw particular promise in attracting young Black men who he said have become disaffected with Democrats over high prices and see greater economic opportunities under the former president. In churches and county fairs, on doorsteps and social media, and across the airwaves, both campaigns are courting Black people, a voting bloc that has traditionally leaned heavily Democratic but where Trump has been making gains, according to opinion polls. “It has gotten really intense in Georgia,” said Essence Johnson, a Black woman who chairs the Democratic Party in Cobb County, a sprawling region outside of Atlanta. Indeed, at the Pig and Peaches barbecue festival in Cobb County, battle lines were drawn.

The Democratic stall courted voters of color with literature on student loan forgiveness, help for historically Black universities and lowering drug prices. The Republican stall, a hundred yards away, was replete with Spanish-language leaflets and literature focused on inflation, abortion, economic opportunity and faith.

“A lot of African Americans, Asians and Hispanics have these shared values,” said Salleigh Grubbs, the Republican county chair, who has been organizing events at schools in the more racially diverse southern part of the county, holding house parties and door knocking in predominately Black neighbourhoods.

Cobb County illustrates the demographic changes that have transformed Georgia from a reliably Republican state into a battleground. Once a predominately white, Republican county, it’s now 30% Black, 14% Hispanic and 6% Asian, an area that helped Biden win Georgia in 2020.

Johnson, the Cobb County Democratic chair, said Harris’ entry in the race had shifted things dramatically. “It’s a reflection in the mirror for a lot of us,” she said of Harris, Reuters added.

A Black men’s forum held just before Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 drew 14 attendees, she said, but 125 people showed up for another held just after Harris entered the race. Sixty people marked a good crowd at county party meetings when Biden was the candidate; 235 people attended once Harris became the nominee.