Democrats surge in Cobb primary

MARIETTA — Is Cobb County turning purple? That’s the question facing politicos and party leaders after Tuesday night’s primary election, which saw record participation by Cobb Democrats.

In 2010, Cobb Republicans cast over 37,000 ballots more than Cobb Democrats in the gubernatorial primaries. Four years later, the gap in the primaries for governor was 28,000 in favor of Cobb Republicans.

On Tuesday, only 251 more votes were cast for a Republican gubernatorial candidate than for a Democrat.

“I think it’s an indication of a state that’s trending purple,” said Kerwin Swint, political science professor at Kennesaw State University and director of its School of Government and International Affairs. “As a state diversifies and grows — we see this from demographic studies — there’s more potential for Democratic voters increasing, no question about it.”

Cobb GOP Chairman Jason Shepherd said part of the reason for the shrinking gap between the party turnout is that in 2014, Republicans were excited to vote for a conservative Congress to balance out President Barack Obama.

Owens rejected the idea that the change had anything to do with political fluctuations. He said Cobb County Democrats are here to stay.

“People have been unhappy with what’s been going on in Washington for a long time,” he said. “I’m not going to attribute it to that … People can be upset about that, they can complain and watch TV and gripe, but the difference comes when people get engaged.”

Shepherd also admitted there has been some amount of laurel-sitting in the Cobb GOP.

“I also think we’re looking at one of the things I warned about when I was running for county party chairman (in 2017) is those trending numbers and a lack of response from the county party, and I think we’re seeing the results of six years prior of not really focusing on the grassroots of the party,” he said.