Local leaders react to former President Trump’s visit to Savannah

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - WTOC spoke with local politicians ahead of the former president’s visit.

This will be the former president’s first time making a stop to the Hostess City and local republicans couldn’t be happier to see him making Savannah a priority.

Former President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday is set to focus on taxes and U.S. manufacturing.

An announcement on his campaign website says he plans to specifically outline his plan to lower taxes for American business owners and highlight the importance of buying American made goods.

With the growth coming to the Coastal Empire, especially in the manufacturing area, local republicans say Savannah is the perfect place to discuss these issues.

They also say the former president is the perfect person to address them.

“Tourism is doing well, manufacturing with Gulfstream has gone, just in 15 years, from 4,000 employees up to 12,000 employees, the Hyundai Metaplant, we have military that’s here,” said Georgia Senator Ben Watson.

“Just like the state of Georgia is business friendly, Donald Trump is business friendly. He’s a businessman and he understands the toll that taxes can take on people,” said Georgia Representative Buddy Carter.

Both gentlemen said they hope Georgia voters focus on the policies Trump brings up, as they say that is what will make the biggest impact once someone takes over the oval office next year.

Local democrats saying they simply hope Trump can stick those items, as they say he tends to go into “debunked conspiracy theories.”

One thing both sides of the aisle agree on, that during his speech Tuesday and throughout the rest of this campaign season, your focus should, again, be on the policies brought forward by each candidate.

“Forget about ‘he said this about her, she said this about him.’ It’s about policy. Elections have consequences because policies have consequences. And, if you look at the policies of Donald Trump, you’ll see that his policies are what the state of Georgia and what Georgian’s want,” said Representative Carter.

“I really hope voters will be focused on issues and focused on democracy and focused on making a plan to vote and trusting in the electoral process. Former President Trump has done a lot to sort of undermine confidence in elections and so I don’t want anybody to get the message that their vote isn’t important,” said Georgia Representative Anne Allen Westbrook.

As the former president makes his first stop to the Hostess City, after Vice President Kamala Harris made a visit about three weeks ago, local politicians say that shows just how important both candidates view the state of Georgia in the upcoming election.

“Georgia is a purple state, we’ve got statewide elected who are democrats, we’ve got statewide elected who are republicans, so this state could either way and it’s certainly important for both sides of the campaigns to pay attention to Georgia,” said Representative Westbrook.

“Look, if he doesn’t win Georgia, he doesn’t win. And, he understands that and he understands that it’s a battle ground state now and he’s paying attention to it. Once he comes, I think he’ll get the base fired up and as we get more into this campaign and people understand that it’s about policies and that he is right on policy, then I think that he’s going to make a big difference in the state of Georgia,” said Representative Carter.

A recent poll by CBS News shows that in battleground states like Georgia, Vice President Kamala Harris leads by a small margin, with 51% of people across those states saying they would vote for her and 49% choosing former President Donald Trump.

CBS News says that was a 50-50 race last month.