Barack Obama and stars help Democrats shore up Georgia votes

Some 70% of black men said they were backing Harris in this election, compared to 85% who backed her predecessor Joe Biden in the 2020 election, an October New York Times/Siena College poll , externalsuggested.

Keeping their turnout high for Democrats is critical for Harris’s chance at the presidency.

At the James L Hallford stadium in the Atlanta suburbs, however, the enthusiasm was palpable. Harris held the rally in DeKalb County, a reliable Democratic stronghold that plays a crucial role in the party’s success in Georgia.

Addressing a crowd of more than 20,000 predominantly black voters, speaker after speaker pointed to Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump’s past behaviour as a reason for Georgians to reject his candidacy.

Warnock pointed to Trump’s prior history of spreading a conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the US.

And he invoked Trump’s statements about the Central Park Five, a group of black and Latino men who were wrongly convicted of assaulting a jogger in 1989 and exonerated years later.

“I do not believe there’s going to be this wave… [this] significant number of black men are going to vote for Donald Trump,” Warnock said.

Perry, the actor and producer, picked up where Warnock left off.

“In Donald Trump’s America there is no dream that looks like me,” he said.