Red state in play as voters say Trump is 'the problem'

MS NOW anchor Katy Tur gave voters in the increasingly swing state of Georgia a chance to vent their political feelings to a panel of guests on “Katy Tur Reports.” What they said should offer little comfort to the occupant of the White House or the political party currently in charge of Congress.

Leadership,” answered Marietta, Georgia voter Amy Cohen, when asked to name “the biggest problem facing our country. “I think our leadership is more obsessed with looking in the mirror than they are with looking at what the community actually needs and what the country actually needs.”

“It feels like we are very close to losing everything that we've fought to have, and we need to be out here voting to make sure it doesn't happen,” said voter Sarah Franklin, outside a Georgia polling place.

“Oh, it's Donald Trump,” said Lindsay Kop, also standing outside a polling area. “He's the biggest problem in our country right now. It's him 100 percent.”

When asked what made her so confident of the her opinion, she answered Trump’s “cruelty.”

“I think the cruelty is just like the focus of his. It's how to benefit himself in the cruelty. He doesn't care about anybody, including anybody in the United States, any of the American people,” she said. “He said it himself. He just wants to enrich himself, enrich his friends, and he does not care about anybody else.”

Tur pointed out to Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein that Marietta, Georgia was once a GOP stronghold normally.

“Marietta, which is the heart of Cobb County, used to be a Republican stronghold,” agreed Bluestein. “That's the launching pad of [former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich, of Johnny Isakson and a number of Republican figures here in Georgia, and it has decisively flipped blue since Trump's rise to power about a decade ago.”

Bluestein added that local Democratic Senatorial incumbent John Ossoff is using the hate Trump generates to fuel is campaign, noting that Ossoff rarely references his Republican senatorial opponents in comments.

Georgia remains a critical battleground heading into the 2026 midterm elections. The state has become increasingly competitive over the past several years, with Democrats making historic gains in 2020 and 2021 before Republicans rebounded in subsequent contests. Georgia's diverse, rapidly growing population—particularly in the Atlanta metropolitan area—continues to shift the state's electoral landscape.

Control of the U.S. Senate seat and numerous statewide races will likely be decided by razor-thin margins. Both parties recognize Georgia's pivotal role in determining which party controls Congress, making voter turnout, campaign investments, and ground game operations essential as the 2026 cycle unfolds.

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