There are two weeks until election day in Georgia's midterms, and candidates are pulling out all the stops to appeal to voters.
On the Republican side, President Trump will visit Georgia again this weekend to stump for gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins after visiting Dalton late last week.
For Democrats, both former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris will be making appearances in the Peach State next week to support U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Early voting has begun and will run until Oct. 30, with election day on Nov. 3, and while one race could have a clear winner, the other is too close to call. Both the Senate and governor
candidates took the stage to debate at the beginning of October, but it doesn't seem like the appearances made any major moves to the political needle.
Here's a look at recent polling.
Georgia governor's race stays too close to predict
Since Jackson narrowly won the Republican primary runoff against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in June, the race for governor has been incredibly close.
Polls throughout the summer have shown Jackson and Bottoms within a few points of one another, often well within the margin of error and easily swung one way or the other by still undecided voters.
The same is true now after the two took the debate stage at the beginning of October.
"The race to succeed Brian Kemp is a statistical tie," analysts with Quantus Insights said in a pollpublished Oct. 19. The poll was taken from Oct. 15 to 17, after the debates took place, among 755 likely Georgia voters.
Jackson held a slight lead, 48.2%, to Bottoms, 46.6%, but with a margin of error +/- 3.8%, meaning the race could easily flip the other way.
There were also 4.5% undecided voters, a high enough percentage to swing the race for Democrats or Republicans.
Bottoms is favored by women, in the Atlanta metro area and among Independents, according to the poll. Jackson is favored by men and in Georgia's suburbs.
Among Black voters, Bottoms leads Jackson 82% to 10%, an astounding lead that could have major consequences in a race this close, Quantus Insights analysts said.
In a poll published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Oct. 20, from the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs, the race is even closer.
Jackson leads Bottoms 46% to 45%, according to the AJC, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1% and with another 8% of undecided voters, essentially a tie. The race may hinge on independents, which lean toward Bottoms 43% to Jackson's 38%, but many are still undecided even two weeks out from the election.
The AJC poll also found that Democratic voters were more motivated during this midterm election cycle, with 68% saying they were "very enthusiastic" compared to just 48% of Republicans who feel that way. Another one in eight GOP voters say they're not enthusiastic about their candidates, double that of Democrats, according to the AJC.
Georgia Senate race has clear front-runner
The race for U.S. Senate is a different story, polls show.
Ossoff has led throughout the summer after Mike Collins won a tight Republican primary runoff against Kemp-backed Derek Dooley.
Polls have shown leads as high as 10 points favoring Ossoff over Collins over the past few months, and the debate appearances don't seem to have swung the race in Collins' direction.
In the same Quantus Insights poll, Ossoff leads 51.8% to Collins' 44.9%, a nearly 7-point spread among likely voters, with fewer than 3% undecided. That lead is larger than a previous Quantus Insights poll in September.
Women favor Ossoff 56% to 40%, but men favor Collins 51% to 47%. Ossoff is also popular among young voters, those under 30, while older voters lean strongly toward Collins, including those over 65.
"The most important number may be independents, who make up a quarter of the sample and back Ossoff 56 to 35," Quantus Insights analysts said. "That is the kind of split that separates a competitive race from a comfortable one."
A Senate poll from the AJC is expected to be released later this week.
Irene Wright covers Georgia politics as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where do polls stand in Georgia after the debates? Governor race tight
