VALDOSTA, Georgia—Vivian Childs, a staunch supporter of former President 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.
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.
Bruce LeVell, a black businessman from Atlanta, said Trump’s message on pocketbook issues resonated with voters of color.
“Black men especially and some of the women are really taking a look at their wallets,” said LeVell, who hosted a roundtable of black business owners with Trump when he visited Atlanta in early August.
At the Embassy church in Austell in southern Cobb County, meanwhile, senior pastor B. Dwayne Hardin is also spreading the gospel of conservatism.
At a recent service kicked off with an hour of boisterous gospel songs, Hardin told his black congregation that America is heading towards socialism and that children are being indoctrinated in schools.
He said it was important to vote for people who “shake things up.”
Afterwards, in his private office, Hardin said he doesn’t tell people to vote for Trump, but that Trump is on the right side of the issues such as individual liberty, school choice, and economic empowerment.
“Do not worship the idol of skin color,” he said he tells his flock.
