Georgia Is Ground Zero for Trump Exhaustion as Another Indictment Looms

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.—Georgia has become ground zero for exhaustion over the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump —and the GOP debate about whether to stick with him in 2024. 

The three indictments he has faced to date have boosted Trump’s standing in national polls. But in Georgia—where Trump is expected to be indicted as soon as this week on charges related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election result in the state—there are signs that voters have tired of the 2020 election replays and of Trump himself.

In a shopping center in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City, Republican Cindy Allamon, 65, said she voted for Trump in 2020 but wasn’t sure she wanted him to be the GOP nominee in 2024—a sentiment that could be a sign of trouble for Trump in the state’s March 12 primary. 

Allamon dreads the coming indictments in Georgia.

“For the country I think they should just let it go,” she said. “It’s getting ridiculous.”

That kind of Trump fatigue is pervasive in Georgia, Republican campaign strategists warn, especially among suburban independents and some disenchanted Republicans. “What has he done to net a single new vote since 2020 here?” complained one Georgia GOP consultant. “The reason he lost in 2020 were white suburban voters in Atlanta. They were over it then, and they’re certainly over it now.”

Now comes a fresh reminder of Trump’s 2020 antics in the anticipated indictments from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Though she has been tight-lipped about who she will indict and on what charges, experts and those close to her expect her to charge the former president, his associates and leading GOP activists in Georgia. A Trump campaign spokesman declined to comment for this article, but Trump has repeatedly said the probe is politically motivated and he did nothing wrong.

Popular GOP Gov. Brian Kemp leads the faction urging the party to stop obsessing over the last presidential contest or risk losing the next one, the same way Trump fatigue depressed Republican turnout and alienated suburban voters in the past two elections, costing the party key Senate races.

Biden won the election in Georgia by about 12,000 votes out of five million cast, making Trump the first Republican presidential candidate to lose the state since 1992. Trump rejected the loss, claiming fraud. He and his allies unsuccessfully pressured Kemp, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who oversees elections, Atlanta-based U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak

Trump’s attacks on state Republicans and the election process in Georgia helped depress the Republican vote and enhance Democratic turnout in two Senate runoff elections in January 2021. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won those contests, giving control of the 50-50 Senate to Democrats, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties. 

Two years later, Trump backed failed primary challenges against Kemp and Raffensperger, causing further GOP division. And Trump-endorsed GOP candidate Herschel Walker, an ex-football star, failed in his effort to unseat Warnock, with Republicans again losing in an expensive, closely watched runoff that handed Democrats a 51-49 Senate majority. 

Today Kemp largely ignores the state GOP, with many in the party continuing to espouse the belief that fraud somehow played a role in Trump’s loss. Kemp’s former campaign manager, Bobby Saparow, leads a super PAC supporting former Vice President Mike Pence’s campaign, while a close adviser, Cody Hall, has joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign staff. Both men trail Trump in national and early-primary state polls.

The charges in Georgia are likely to include violations of the state’s antiracketeering statute, often used by prosecutors going after gangs. Prosecutors use the antiracketeering law to build a case against what they describe as criminal networks. In this case, they would make the case that such a network, headed by Trump, sought to subvert democracy by blocking legitimate election results.

That would mark the fourth criminal indictment of Trump, and national polling has shown his standing in the 2024 primary rises as his legal challenges have intensified.

Some Republican strategists said the latest indictment might not yield the same benefits for Trump in the state. But Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon disagreed.

“I think it will continue to energize Georgia Republicans, and even really center-right voters, because most people in this country don’t believe you take the criminal justice system and use it as a political tool,” McKoon said.

The University of Georgia surveyed 983 likely Republican primary voters in April and found Trump led the Republican field in the state by double digits. But the poll also contained warning signs: Even among the Republican Party’s most involved voters in Georgia—those who are likely to participate in a primary—about 15% would look elsewhere or are undecided in the general election if he is the nominee.

In the same poll, 25% of likely Republican primary voters in Georgia said Trump has had a “mainly negative” impact on their party.

Georgia Democrats said they, too, were tired of rehashing 2020 but were eager to see indictments against a man who they believe tried to disenfranchise them.

“I’m just so over the whole thing,” said Kevin Kelly, 60, a flight attendant and a Democrat who lives in Coweta County, southwest of Atlanta. “But I hope Trump gets what he deserves.”

Biden’s team views Georgia as a priority for 2024; he has visited the state several times and Democrats have invested heavily there since 2020. 

Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager of Biden’s campaign, called Georgia “crucial” to the re-election bid. Fulks, who managed Warnock’s 2022 race, said he wasn’t concerned about voter fatigue, saying: “What happens when people win, they feel more invested. It makes it easier to organize.”

As officials have set up barricades outside the Fulton County courthouse, Georgia Republican voters expressed frustration with the coming prosecution as well as with Trump and his presidential bid.

Republican Charles Cagle, a 74-year-old retiree from Sandy Springs, Ga., said he distrusts Willis, whom he suspects of trying to make a name for herself. Cagle said he voted for Trump twice before, but he doesn’t know what he will do in 2024.

“All the circus that goes on around him—I’d like to see things calm down a bit,” he said. 

He prefers Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.)., or DeSantis, though he said the Florida governor “kind of stumbled coming out of the gate.”

Merwin Chambers, 72, a retired accountant from Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, said he was sick of the barrage of political TV ads, fundraising emails and Trump’s continued insistence that he won the 2020 election. 

He voted for Trump twice before, but it is time to move on, he said. “I would think more of Trump if he would shut up about the election. It’s over,” Chambers said. 

He now favors other Republican presidential hopefuls like Scott, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. He said he would probably “hold my nose” and vote for Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee—unless he is convicted of a felony.

“That might be one of the rare instances I would have to sit out an election,” Chambers said. “I would vote for the other people running, but I would leave the presidential spot blank.”

—Catherine Lucey contributed to this article.

Write to Cameron McWhirter at [email protected] and Lindsay Wise at [email protected]