Rock legend Robbie Robertson’s recent death at 80 spurred an outpouring of fan appreciation for his music, with much focus on “The Weight” by Robertson-led The Band and the song’s epic refrain, “Take a load off Fanny.”
The lyrics to this classic rock anthem, a staple of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, are gaining relevance in a different realm — pending indictments of former President Donald Trump and political allies in Fulton County, Georgia. Charges related to 2020 election interference in Georgia could be brought as early as Tuesday by District Attorney Fani Willis (same first name as “The Weight” protagonist but spelled a bit differently).
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The prosecutions would play out in a longtime Republican state where President Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump in 2020. The prospective cases against Trumpworld figures would unfurl in Georgia in the 14-month run-up to the November 2024 presidential election. It’s a contest likely to feature a Biden-Trump rematch, and Georgia has emerged as a premier swing state, with the Trump legal drama there playing out like political mood music.
Longtime GOP stronghold now a toss-up
In 2020 Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast (49.47% to 49.24%). The last Democratic nominee to win Georgia was Bill Clinton in 1992.
The Peach State has ripened politically for Democrats, so to speak. This is due in part to an influx of professional-class workers moving there for corporate, management, and scientific research jobs at employers such as the Coca-Cola Company, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Delta Air Lines, logistics company DHL, Home Depot, UPS, and many more.
And Georgia’s population, per the 2020 census, is about 50.1% white, 32.6% black, 10.5% Latino, and 4.4% Asian American, with members of the latter groups particularly up for grabs politically.
It all adds up to a highly competitive state, where the increasingly blue Atlanta metro area can cancel out, and sometimes outweigh, the voting power of deep red rural areas that have produced outspoken Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA).
Recent down-ballot races offer both parties hope. The 2022 midterm elections showed that Republicans are still competitive in the state as Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger prevailed over their Democratic opponents by large margins. Democrats, though, hold both Peach State Senate seats and have gained House seats in the past few election cycles.
Trump-related indictments as local news
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s pending indictments all but ensure that relitigating the 2020 elections is front and center in the Georgia presidential fight. That has the potential to turn off suburban independents and some disenchanted Republicans. Kemp, for one, has urged his party members to stop obsessing over the last presidential contest or risk losing the next one.
The Georgia cases, if and when they’re brought, will effectively be local news in a premier swing state. Sure, there will be plenty of national coverage of the Georgia Trump-related cases. But it will be one of several Trump prosecutorial stories.
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There are also special counsel Jack Smith’s federal cases against Trump, in South Florida over alleged document retention by the former president, and in Washington, D.C., on charges related to blocking a peaceful transfer of power to Biden. Plus state charges in New York, where Trump has pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. That case alleges Trump falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information before the 2016 presidential election.
Like so much else in the Trump era, in Georgia it adds up to an unprecedented political situation. The Trump-related cases, if and when they proceed, likely won’t be a “load off” for Willis, as she’ll face immense pressure to win, as the first local prosecutor in American history to bring cases against a former president.
Whatever the eventual legal outcomes, which could happen well after November 2024, news about Trump-related cases would offer Georgia voters a plethora of new information on which to base their decisions.
