Episode 14: Georgia

All eyes were on Georgia for the past few weeks as the RICO trial of Donald Trump and eighteen of his co-conspirators took a detour when one of the defendants tried to get Fulton County DA Fani Willis disqualified from the case. But it’s not just the trial in Fulton County that keeps Georgia on the minds of political observers. Georgia emerged as a critical swing state in the 2020 election and remains closely competitive in 2024. So I thought this would be a good time to consider the politics of the Peach State, and there is no one more qualified to do that than today’s guest. Vernon Smith was Newsweek’s Atlanta Bureau Chief for many years and has been observing Georgia politics for over four decades. During his time in Atlanta, his reporting focused on the civil rights movement in the South, including the trials of the Klansmen convicted in the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama church bombings, and Maynard Jackson’s campaign to become Atlanta’s first black mayor. Vernon was Newsweek’s National Correspondent of the Year in 1997 and is the recipient of the 1982 National Magazine Award. He says that Georgia Democrats are wringing their hands over concern that the Biden campaign may not give them the resources they need to compete, but he also notes that the Trump campaign in Georgia is facing challenges of its own.