Biden was faltering in Georgia. Harris is putting it back on the map.

ATLANTA — When Joe Biden last left this city after his abysmal debate performance, Democrats felt hopeless about their chances in Georgia — and just about everywhere else.

Kamala Harris’s Tuesday rally at the Georgia State Convocation Center — a boisterous affair that included line dancing, a “hotties for Harris” banner and a performance by rapper Megan Thee Stallion — left them optimistic, but still far from certain about both.

The vice president’s appeal to voters of color and younger voters, combined with a recent pivot to the center that could persuade suburbanites and a general new-candidate shine, has created an opening in Georgia and other Sun Belt states that seemed unlikely for Biden, whose electoral hopes had narrowed north to Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Harris, struggling to speak over the applause of a crowd her campaign pegged at 10,000, made clear she sees Georgia as key to November victory. And she for the first time mapped out some of her policy priorities — on immigration, voting rights and gun control — that Atlantans in interviews this week said they had been eagerly awaiting.

“I am very clear: The path to the White House runs right through this state,” Harris said. “You all helped us win in 2020, and we’re going to do it again in 2024.”

She also challenged former President Donald Trump to “meet me on the debate stage” after he said in an interview with Fox News Channel that ran Monday night that he would “probably” debate her — but “can also make a case for not doing it.”

“As the saying goes: If you got something to say, say it to my face,” she said to a round of applause from the crowd, which was gathered less than two miles from the TV studio where last month’s Biden-Trump debate was held.

Harris’ late entry comes after Trump, who lost Georgia by only 11,779 votes in 2020, has made inroads among Black voters, especially younger Black men. But strategists from both parties see a potential for the new Democratic nominee to halt or reverse those trends.

“It feels like Georgia’s re-entered the chat,” said Stephen Lawson, a veteran GOP strategist here. “Georgia was not in play for Joe Biden. Georgia is in play for Kamala Harris.”

“President Trump has the slight edge, but I think the vice president has quickly cut into that,” he added.

Interviews with more than a dozen voters in downtown Atlanta ahead of Harris’ Tuesday rally revealed excitement — but also doses of uncertainty — about her candidacy and what she would do if elected president. They suggest that coconut tree memes, brat summer, and the goodwill of Democrats eager for a candidate under the age of 80 — while helpful in buoying the nascent campaign’s fundraising efforts — will only go so far, and that voters are interested in seeing her policy roadmap and her vice presidential pick before fully committing to her.

“I want to see what she has to say,” said ShaDonna Bell, 27, sitting on a park bench in downtown Atlanta. She added that she likes Harris, but the vice president “still has to earn the vote.”

Trump has made a significant play for Black voters — and specifically Black men — this cycle, with a recent national poll from The New York Times/Siena College showing that while Harris is doing better with voters of color than Biden has all year, Trump continues to outperform his 2020 numbers with them. Trump is set to attend the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago on Wednesday, and Trump and Vance will be in Georgia on Saturday at the same venue Harris hosted her Tuesday rally.

Still, strategists from both parties questioned whether Trump’s support with Black voters is as durable as suggested by polling, which shows him climbing into the upper teens or low 20s after earning only single-digit support in his two previous elections.

“That’s been hard to believe, if I’m being honest. But I wouldn’t completely discount it,” said Howard Franklin, a prominent Black Democratic strategist in Atlanta. “I think there is an appeal.”

In interviews here, some Black voters expressed skepticism about what the Democratic Party has done to support them.

“What has she done?” said Kwai Johnson, 56, who voiced concerns about Harris’ background as San Francisco district attorney and California state attorney general and said he doesn’t feel like she has helped the Black community. “Really no one has, so I’m not going to hold that against her. I’m just going to hold what she does, and what she did, not what she might do.”

Kwai, who is an assistant engineer at an electronics company, said he’s undecided in the election but is leaning toward not voting in the presidential race or voting for a third-party candidate. As a Clinton voter in 2016 and a Biden voter in 2020, he’s just the kind of person the Harris campaign thinks it can win back with her at the top of the ticket.

In a memo last week , campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said that the Biden-Harris swap “opens up additional persuadable voters who our campaign can work to win the support of,” like the undecided segment, which are “disproportionately Black, Latino and under 30” and “are more likely to have supported the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020.”

Democrats here argue Biden always had a shot in Georgia, pointing to the significant investment the campaign has made as proof of its seriousness. The campaign Harris has now inherited has 24 field offices and more than 170 coordinated staff, with 2,500 volunteers participating in more than 174 events across the state last weekend.

“The groundwork was laid early on this year, and the Democrats treated this like a state that they wanted to compete in,” said Dave Hoffman, spokesperson for the state Democratic Party. “Georgia’s in play. I believed that Georgia was in play prior to all of this.”

But her supporters acknowledge the investment Harris has personally made in Georgia, visiting the state now 15 times as vice president.

“My friends who are not political … are also super engaged at this point,” said Franklin, the Democratic strategist in Atlanta. “Some of that credit belongs to the vice president for having built those inroads or having hosted those house parties or having cultivated relationships. There’s definitely a broader phalanx, or constellation, of people who are interested in the outcome.”

And Harris’ emergence is energizing younger voters. Ari Adams, 24, said that her Gen-Z friends are now registering to vote and planning to support Harris in November — and Adams, who had already planned to vote for Biden and has now switched to Harris, said she’s thinking about volunteering for Harris’ campaign.

“I’ve seen a lot of Gen Zs on TikTok saying they registered to vote and are excited to vote. A lot of people my age that weren’t going to vote at first are ready to vote,” Adams said. “Now with Kamala I’m like, ‘Yes, y’all, you got to get out and vote.’ I’m so excited to see all the women rallying behind her in all the different Zoom calls — even the men doing the different Zoom calls and raising money.”

Republican strategists admit that Harris’ entrance has shaken up the race in Georgia in a way they hadn’t thought possible two weeks ago. Shortly after Biden dropped out of the race, Brian Robinson, a longtime GOP strategist in the state, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that swapping in Harris “will not change the dynamic,” saying her “approval numbers are as bad as Biden’s.”

But in an interview with POLITICO this week, Robinson admitted he was “somewhat wrong.” He said she was “fantastic” at her first campaign rally in Milwaukee last week, she was “serious and statesman-like” in her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that she has “obviously energized and united the party in a way that is fairly remarkable.”

“Fourteen days ago, Trump had just been shot, and this thing was over,” Robinson said.

Now, he said, “this is winnable for Kamala Harris.”