Bottoms campaign strategists outline winning path

But we want to begin with our Deidra Dukes, who is live with the Keisha Lance Bottoms campaign this afternoon at the campaign watch party where volunteers, Deidra, and supporters are going to gather really for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening to watch those returns come in. That's right, Tom. Joining you live from the Marriott Marquis, and we've got a lot of activity here behind the scenes as Keisha Lance Bottoms' lead team arrives here, working to get everything ready, final preparations both for the media and also for the hundreds of supporters that are expected to pack here in just a few hours to watch those election returns come in, along with Keisha Lance Bottoms and others here today. Today, of course, just across the street, we have a huge Democratic contingency at another hotel where John Ossoff and others. Others are gathered, other statewide races going on for the Democrats where they will also be watching returns there. But as far as the governor's race, we have seen this race now at this point on Election Day just about as tight as a race can get. You, of course, saw those Insider Advantage poll numbers yesterday, which literally saw these candidates neck and neck. They have both been campaigning statewide even yesterday, visiting several cities. And Keisha Lance Bottoms not letting Letting up even today on the last day of her five city tour, she visited multiple cities yesterday. She closed out that tour this morning in Smyrna, visiting two locations, one polling location and also stopping at another location to talk to her supporters, thank them, the volunteers for their hard work. And... Also, just really talking to reporters and encouraging anyone who has not gotten out there and voted yet to do so today. So I talked to someone with her campaign just to get an idea of what they're looking at, what their winning strategy is. And they say in addition to those base supporters who are they're still trying to get out even today because they say this is such a close race that they need anyone and everyone that they can get out to vote to get out there and vote. They told me that in addition to the base, they need those. affected Republicans, those sporadic voters, voters who don't typically vote in every election, and also those young voters, that if they can get the right mix of those voters out here, that that will be the winning formula that they believe will put them over the top. Now, as I said, we did have the opportunity to catch up with Bottoms here in the metro area today, and here's what she told us. We have teams out across Georgia still knocking on doors, still calling people on the telephone, still sending text messages. And to all the people, I promise you, we'll stop after 7 o'clock tonight, maybe. I know that we have done all humanly possible the things that we can do. I don't know what else we could have done. I hold my head high based on the campaign that we've run, given the odds that we were up against, and the rest is up to God and the people. And given the fact, Bottom says that they are holding their own in this race, that it's so close given how much money her opponent has spent on this campaign, and also the fact that you had so many Democrats come out early to vote, they feel that they have developed a really great lead in this race, that they've stacked a lot of votes up top ahead of today, but they said they really need to bring it home, and by bringing it home, That means getting their voters out again today. They need a strong showing today, they said, if in fact they're going to be able to pull it out in this very tight race and win tonight. Yeah, these candidates, Deidre, leave it all on the field, nothing to spare. I'm wondering if you could sort of give us, because we're going to be checking in with you really throughout the evening there as people start to gather to watch these results come in. I mean, is it a large hall? How many people are they expecting there? And do you have those big monitors where you guys also sort of watch the local stations like ours as these numbers start to pour in tonight? Yeah, well we haven't made it inside yet, but I have been in this venue several times for various elections. Of course, it's a huge room, similar to, I guess, a big ballroom, you would say. A huge room where, you know, we see different events held. And so they can definitely hold a huge crowd here. This is an invitation only event, a ticketed event when I say invitation only. You know, if you have a ticket, if you were able to get in here and, you know, fill out the paperwork, then you can make it in. But we do expect that this is going to be a capacity event, a lot of excitement generated. You know, I even had people reaching out to me asking where it's going to be held days ago, how folks can get in. And given the fact that you also have candidates just across the street at the hotel, across the street, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't have people coming back and forth because there's just a lot of enthusiasm, high energy among the Democrats. And so they do expect that this is going to. It's going to be a very big night for them, Tom.