Trump hits campaign trail in key battleground as race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene heats up

President Donald Trump heads south to Georgia on Thursday, as he stops in a crucial midterm battleground state to showcase his administration's efforts to boost the economy.

White House Press Secretary Karolina Leavitt said on the eve of the trip that Trump "will visit two local businesses and give a speech on his efforts to make life affordable for working people."

But Trump's visit to Rome, Georgia, in the northwest part of the state, comes with early voting underway in the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Once a MAGA firebrand, she had a major falling out with the president before stepping down from Congress at the beginning of the year.

A jam-packed field of 18 candidates are vying to succeed Taylor Greene in Georgia's solidly red 14th Congressional District.

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"We have a lot of people that want to take Marjorie 'Traitor' Greene's place, and many, many candidates, and I have to choose one," the president told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday, as he used a derogatory nickname for the former lawmaker.

"They say whoever I endorse is going to win. But we have a lot of good candidates that want to take her place."

The president earlier this month did make an endorsement in the race, backing Clay Fuller, who is a former local district attorney.

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With so many candidates in the race, it's likely no candidate tops 50% in the March 10 election, which would then force an April 7 runoff.

Trump's stop in Georgia, where he's expected to spotlight inflation, energy costs, and unemployment, comes two days after top members of the president's political team huddled in a closed-door strategy session with Trump administration Cabinet members and their top aides on how best to sell the president's agenda to voters in this year's midterm elections.

The meeting, which sources familiar confirmed to Fox News, was hosted by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is steering Trump's political strategy.

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According to sources, the message during a slide presentation by chief pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio was that the economy will be the top issue on the minds of voters, and that the White House needs to spotlight its efforts on easing affordability.

"Team Trump will deploy every resource necessary to win the midterms, protect our majorities, and ensure President Trump keeps delivering results for America's working families," a source in the president's political orbit told Fox News Digital.

The meeting was held as the GOP works to defend their control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in November's midterms. Republicans are facing traditional political headwinds in the midterms, when the party in power usually loses House and Senate seats.

Republicans are also dealing with the president's continued underwater approval ratings, and a slew of surveys, including the latest Fox News polling, that indicates Americans are pessimistic about the economy and say things have not improved in the year since Trump returned to the White House.

Meanwhile, Democrats have scored a series of ballot box victories and overperformances in off-year elections and special elections during Trump's second administration, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

Republicans see the president as their best tool to motivate low-propensity MAGA voters, who don't always vote when Trump's not on the ballot, to motivated them to show up at the polls during the midterms.

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Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital last month that Trump was the GOP's "secret weapon" that will help Republicans "defy history" in the midterms.

"We got to make sure we turn our voters out, and we got to make sure that we have people energized. And there's nobody that can energize our base more than President Trump," Gruters said.

Trump made stops in December and last month in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan to highlight his accomplishments on the economy.

And after Wiles said that Trump would start making weekly stops, he rallied supporters late last month in Iowa, a one-time Midwestern battleground turned red-leaning state the president carried by double digits in 2024 where Republicans are now playing defense as they defend open Senate and gubernatorial seats and three competitive GOP-controlled House districts.

But Trump's stop in Georgia on Thursday is his first campaign-style event since the Iowa trip three weeks ago.

The Democratic National Committee, in a statement ahead of Trump's visit, argued, "Because of Donald Trump, tens of thousands of Georgians have lost their jobs, hardworking families are paying over $1,000 more per year for the basics, and thousands of GA-14 residents are facing skyrocketing health care premiums. While Trump tries to spin his record and lie about the state of his economy, Democrats won’t stop fighting to lower costs for Georgia families and protect their healthcare."