ATLANTA — All eyes are on Atlanta as a rematch four years in the making will reach a pivotal point Thursday night with the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle.
It may feel like déjà vu, as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will step up to their respective lecterns, and this time, the stakes are just as high. Their debate is set against the backdrop of CNN's Midtown studio in a once reliably red state that Biden won over by slim margins, securing his presidency.
Georgia's top Republican Gov. Brian Kemp walked into the studio Thursday afternoon ahead of the debate and expressed the strategy to secure Trump's place in the Oval Office.
"I think this is a great opportunity tonight for former President Trump to be forward thinking, to tell people why they should vote for him," Kemp said to 11Alive Anchor Faith Jessie.
Citing probably one of the greatest voter concern, the economy, Kemp said Trump could sway voters by simply pointing to their pockets.
"I think he can make a really big contrast to make it a 'pocketbook election,' but he [Trump] cannot get distracted on other issues that I'm sure President Biden will try to take him down [on]," Kemp said.
The governor expressed that swaying undecided voters will be key to this upcoming election, noting what many polls have - that voters aren't pleased with their limited picks for president.
"Donald Trump can really contrast that tonight and go after the people who are undecided in this race or maybe people that don't like both candidates, that are frustrated and don't want to vote at all," Kemp said.
In a previous one-on-one interview with 11Alive's The Georgia Vote co-host Faith Jessie, Kemp said he'd support the Republican party's nominee. He explained that his presence is a testament to that statement.
"I've said for a long time that I'm going to support the nominee and support the ticket, that's what we're doing," he said, adding that he hopes to "keep Georgia red," by also reelecting who he believes are at-risk legislators.
"We were very successful doing that in 2022, we were successful doing that in the primary election with our Chief Justice Andrew Pinson. I think we have the opportunity to do that again as we go into November," he said.
Beyond undecided voters, Kemp added that if Trump sticks to the issues that people care about, "he's going to overperform with African Americans; he's going to overperform with Latinos and with Asian Americans and with nontraditional Republican voters. That's the key for him tonight."
However, Georgia's governor did not ignore Trump's likeability factor. He shared a message with voters who were unsure of the former president's morals.
"People will want to vote for somebody they like and I think that in the last election that's one reason that people I think liked Joe Biden more than Donald Trump for different reasons - but I don't think that's the case now," he said in part, "at the end of the day you only got a few choices here, right? You could not vote, you could vote for Donald Trump, or you could vote for Joe Biden."
Kemp said when people really think about how they want their lives to change in the next four years - "they're not going to be voting on moral issues this election."
"I just think that undecided voters and people that may not like either candidate are going to vote for that person that they feel like is going to be me in a better position four years from now than I'm in today - so I think they'll vote for Donald Trump," he said.