Georgia was fading from the presidential battleground map. But Kamala Harris has put the state back in play.

Trump underperformed in many inner suburban Atlanta communities during the March GOP presidential primary, with former UN ambassador Nikki Haley earning thousands of votes even after she had left the race.

A sizable number of these anti-Trump GOP voters could eventually migrate to Harris and give her added support in a region where she’ll also need to perform strongly with Democrats to overcome Trump’s rural strength.

Trump still hasn’t let 2020 go

Elections are about the future. And if Trump holds on to 2020 instead of uniting Georgia Republicans, Harris will likely benefit.

During Trump’s rally on Saturday, he once again lashed out at Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, leaning into the bitterness of the 2020 election that tore apart the GOP.

Trump has long argued, without evidence, that he was the true victor in Georgia that year. But neither Kemp nor Raffensperger would aid Trump in overturning the state’s presidential results, and most Republicans have sought to move beyond the ex-president’s grievances on the issue.

But not Trump.

“He’s a bad guy, he’s a disloyal guy, and he’s a very average governor,” Trump told rally attendees of Kemp on Saturday.

“In my opinion, they want us to lose,” the former president said of Kemp and Raffensperger.

After Trump in a Truth Social post mentioned Kemp’s wife, Marty, by saying he didn’t want the Georgia first lady’s endorsement, the governor told the ex-president on X to “leave my family out of it.”

In 2022, Trump tried to dispatch Kemp and Raffensperger in GOP primaries to no avail, as they defeated MAGA-aligned challengers.

This year, a divided Republican Party headed into November would seriously imperil the party’s chances at flipping the state as the Harris campaign pours time and resources into Georgia.

If Trump can’t even appear in Georgia alongside the state’s popular sitting GOP governor, it could affect organizing and turnout — as Kemp’s get-out-the-vote operation was critical in his reelection victory against Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2022.