Biden's presidential motorcade drives through deep blue Atlanta neighborhood - but draws only sparse crowd

President Joe Biden's motorcade drove through deep blue Atlanta this weekend to little fanfare, leading many to wonder about the enthusiasm for his 2024 campaign.

In 2020, the president became the first Democrat to win a presidential election in Georgia in 30 years. The party also won both senate seats in the Southern state.  

But the state's landscape has shifted significantly over the last four years, with recent polls suggesting former president Donald Trump is in the lead in the Peach State.

On Saturday, video showed his motorcade driving through the Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead with only about a dozen people in the streets to greet him or catch a glimpse.

As conservative account RNC Research put it: 'If a presidential motorcade passes through town but absolutely nobody cares — did it really pass through town?' 

The president was in town this weekend to deliver the commencement speech at Morehouse College, an historically-black institution. 

President Joe Biden's motorcade drove through deep blue Atlanta this weekend to little fanfare, leading many to wonder about the enthusiasm for his 2024 campaign

Biden, new analysis from the New York Times argues, has lost some support among, black, people of color and younger voters in Georgia.

These groups were instrumental in his 2020 win, which he only just eked out by around 12,000 votes, suggesting a much tougher battle in the state as November's election nears.

Georgia's population has been growing and becoming more diverse in recent years. 

In 2020, this, alongside years of voter registration and mobilization efforts with historically disenfranchised groups, helped the Democrats make gains in expanding suburbs in cities such as Atlanta. 

Momentum was also brought on by the racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd which gained intense traction in Atlanta. 

The government's response to the coronavirus pandemic as well as the glaring inequality of access to healthcare also gave the Democrats plenty of opportunities to win over voters. 

President Joe Biden told black graduates Sunday that former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies 'don't see you in the future of America' in a fiery takedown on race

However, Trump and his team attempted to overturn the loss in Georgia leading to criminal charges being filed against them.

Trump is now garnering support as a result of the backlash to the case brought against him, the New York Times reports. 

The cases are 'attempting to criminalize political disagreement,' Joshua McKoon, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party said on Friday. 

The Democrats are also concerned that voter turnout will not match that achieved in 2020 without the motivating factors of the protests and the pandemic. 

'I think folks understand the importance of the election but there is a certain — just fatigue,' Sam Park, a Georgia Democrat told the Times. 

Local Democrat activists are also concerned that some sectors of voters who supported Biden in 2020 have since grown disillusioned, according to the publication.

Recent polls suggest former president Donald Trump is in the lead in Georgia

Those on the ground are reporting back that there is significant anger that Biden has not been harder on Israel about its actions in Gaza, as well as the party's inability to tackle issues such as the rising cost of housing and student debt. 

Others say that the true problem is not that the Democrats are failing to grapple with issues that voters care about but their inability to communicate their achievements successfully.

They claims that low levels of unemployment in the black community, large amounts of federal funds sent to the state for pandemic relief and infrastructure, as well as the government's efforts to cancel student loans are all marked achievements. 

'Those things ought to not be secrets,' Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, the presiding prelate for the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, told the Times. 

President Joe Biden arrived in Atlanta a day before the Morehouse commencement and met with prominent alumni on the tarmac including Sen. Raphael Warnock (third from left). He put his hands on the shoulders of Marlon Kimpson, a member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy

He then spoke to supporters at Mary Mac's Tea Room telling them he felt good about his chances in the November election and pushing that they shouldn't be discouraged by the polling because former President Donald Trump is still losing votes in the GOP primaries

The Democrats are aware of the need to craft a narrative in the swing state and are about to launch a $14 million advertising blitz in the state later this month.

'Not saying that this is easy,' Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager, who is also from Georgia, told the Times. 

Adding: 'But I do think that we have a formula that's conducive to accepting that message.'