Keep Politics Local

Local coverage in newspapers and on radio stations has fallen off a cliff, and today people consume hot takes on nationalized issues from partisan commentators who build audiences by stoking outrage and division. A candidate for dogcatcher today must first tell voters where he stands on President Donald Trump before anyone will listen to his plans for the humane treatment of pets.

It makes perfect sense that voters’ views on national issues will play a decisive role in how they vote in this year’s U.S. Senate race where incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff will face off against an eventual Republican nominee. What makes less sense is that, because our electorate is highly tribalized, we can assume the vote total for the Democratic nominee for governor will closely track Ossoff’s vote totals, even though we don’t yet know who that nominee will be.

No single issue unifies Democrats quite like their opposition to Trump. For Republicans, Trump provides the glue that holds an unwieldy coalition together. Trump haters will vote for the Democrat for governor. Trump supporters will obviously vote for the Republican. And a handful of independent-minded voters will decide the election for the most powerful political positions in Georgia – and many of them will vote based on how they feel about Trump at the time they cast their vote.

Thus, if Trump’s approval rating in Georgia is in the high 40s or above, Republicans have a great chance to keep control of the state’s constitutional offices. If Trump’s approval is in the low 40s or high 30s, Democrats have an opportunity to regain the governorship for the first time in nearly a quarter century.

We’ve seen enough evidence that the Trump presidency has already energized Georgia Democrats. Though there were many reasons Democratic challengers beat Republican Public Service Commission members in November, it’s hard to imagine those incumbents would have lost by 26 points if they were running in a neutral political environment. Special elections for legislative seats have also witnessed margin swings toward the Democrats.

Georgia Republicans have governed not only conservatively but responsibly.

Americans usually give the opposition a boost in midterm elections, and the Democrats are nakedly trying to nationalize our state elections by speaking out against Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts or healthcare policy in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

They’d much rather talk about Trump than the record of Gov. Brian Kemp or the Republican majorities in the General Assembly. That’s because many voters who might object to Washington Republicans still like the way Republicans have governed Georgia. Calling for “change” in Washington will find more applause than calling for a new direction in Georgia.

Georgia Republicans have governed not only conservatively but responsibly. Frugal spending has left the state with a $16 billion reserve, some of which Kemp is deploying to pay for long-term, much-needed infrastructure projects like expanding express lanes on Interstate 75 in Henry County and finishing up the conversion of State Route 316 between Gwinnett County and Athens into a limited access highway. At the same time, Republicans continued to lower income tax rates and highlighted tax cut plans during this year’s session. Our public schools are fully funded, we’re implementing groundbreaking literacy education reforms, and we’ve created a modest scholarship program that helps families in low-performing school districts pay for private school tuition.

An emphasis on competitiveness has kept Georgia as the No. 1 state for business 12 years running. The strong business climate has brought in hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs that have catapulted us from a poor Southern backwater into a prosperous state.

Opportunity has resulted in the state’s population growing by around 1 million every decade – the next census should give us a 15th congressional seat.

We boast top-notch universities and technical colleges that most students can attend for free or at a reduced rate. We have the world’s busiest airport with direct flights to all the globe’s top destinations and the country’s fourth-busiest port. The unemployment rate regularly runs nearly a point lower than the national average.

Georgia is going in the right direction under Republican leadership. As we approach a truly consequential election where we’ll replace all our most powerful constitutional statewide officers, voters should remember O’Neill’s wise words and cast their ballots based on what’s local, not what’s going on in Washington. 

Brian Robinson owns communications consulting firm Robinson Republic.