Democrats consider running hard in Republican-dominated Georgia

In this Aug. 25, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks in Reno, Nev. The State Department says about 30 emails that may be related to the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI's recently closed investigation into her use of a private server. In this Aug. 25, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks in Reno, Nev. The State Department says about 30 emails that may be related to the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI's recently closed investigation into her use of a private server.

By Associated Press September 4, 2016 7 min read

ATLANTA – When Donald Trump first announced his run for president, Karl Booker was intrigued.

From where he stood, behind a barber’s chair in a gentrifying neighborhood near downtown Atlanta, the thought of a political outsider shaking things up seemed promising. Perhaps, he thought, the Manhattan businessman could make government more responsive to people like his own mostly black clientele.

Then, Booker said, Trump “started pandering to the racist side of it” – disparaging Mexicans, insulting Latino Americans, portraying black American life as a hellish slough of crime, poverty and other grim pathologies.

Now, comb and scissors in hand, the 49-year-old Booker draws a red line through the bustling Off the Hook barbershop, with its Barack Obama posters, sports memorabilia and pennants celebrating Georgia’s historic black colleges.

“We in here are going to do everything we can to stop Donald Trump,” Booker declared in a hard, gravelly voice that brooked no doubt.