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– Party representatives comments are presented in order alphabetically by last name.

Local political party chairmen Greg Sandlin and Mike Stein sat down with The Times to discuss the recent events and changes to the national political landscape, and what those could mean come election day in November.

Greg Sandlin, Coffee County Republican Party chairman, said he believes President Joe Biden opting not to run for re-election will have little impact on the presidential election in Coffee County.

“This county and this state is completely Republican now, it is like 72-75 percent Republican,” he said. “The way I look at the Democratic party locally is they are inconsequential; they couldn’t come up with a candidate for the March primary.”

Sandlin said he believes the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump’s life will only make him more popular amongst voters.

“He stood from that attempt on his life and he was angry,” Sandlin said. “Some people would be scared but he rose as a leader… and he recovered very quickly.”

When it comes to Trump’s status as the only former president to receive a felony conviction, Sandlin said he does not believe that will cost Trump a significant number of votes.

“It is going to fire up the base, but will it turn off a few moderate Republicans, maybe,” he said. “The assassination attempt will probably bring them right back.”

When it comes to what he would say to an undecided voter, Sandlin said his response is simple.

“The four years of (Trump’s) presidency, the economy was churning along,” he said. “The pandemic came from nowhere and that whacked things out, but then let’s look at the Biden-Harris Presidency. The green scam that they have come up on energy and the inflation is killing the lower middle class. People are having to tap into their 401Ks to pay the bills.”

On the other side of the political aisle, Coffee County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Stein said he believes Biden was an experienced candidate who has done a good job as president.

“In that respect, I certainly thought that he was viable,” Stein said. “Unfortunately, the Trump campaign did a good job of making the election be about Joe Biden and not so much the issues but about the candidates themselves and I think when that happened Biden became a less viable candidate than he probably should have been.”

Stein said he was not surprised when Biden announced that he had made the decision to halt is reelection campaign July 21.

“Biden is actually putting country before himself,” Stein said. “The writing was on the wall that he was going to have a difficult time getting reelected. Priority number one is to keep Trump out of office and when it became clear that Kamala Harris was a more viable candidate than him, then he did the right thing and put himself second and put the country first and stepped aside.”

With poll numbers closer between Harris and Trump than they were with a Biden and Trump matchup, Stein said he believes the American people, “now have a race on their hands.”

If elected, Harris would serve as the first female president of the United States, something Stein said the country is ready for.

“Let’s not forget that when Hillary Clinton ran, she won the popular vote,” he said. “It can certainly be done, it is just a matter of the electoral college and will Kamala Harris be able to win the battleground states that will put her over the top.”

Stein said his message to undecided voters is to think about the future of the country.

“My message is to think about what kind of country you want to have in the future,” he said. “Do you want to have a country of freedom, of liberty where the government is not telling you what to do, if so that is the Harris administration.”