Trump keeps Georgia red with help from white voters
ATLANTA — Georgia Republicans have maintained their traditional dominance in presidential years, handing the reliably red state to Donald Trump as the GOP nominee racked up a stunning national victory.
Unofficial results suggest Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 5 percentage points in Tuesday’s election. That would put him short of Mitt Romney’s eight-point margin over President Barack Obama in 2012 but very close to John McCain’s six-point victory here in 2008.
Tuesday night gave Georgia Democrats a few hopeful threads. Clinton managed to flip three metro-Atlanta counties that backed Romney in 2012, including suburban Cobb County, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s home base. Isakson cruised to a third term on Tuesday over Democrat Jim Barksdale and had no trouble winning the county.
Trump racked up an insurmountable lead throughout the state, dashing Democrats’ hopes that steadily changing demographics and Trump’s own brash style could put the state in play for Clinton. Former president Bill Clinton was the last Democratic nominee to take Georgia during his first run for the White House more than 20 years ago.
Unofficial results and exit polling indicated Trump was dominant in much of the state with backing from white and older voters, and Clinton’s margins in metro-Atlanta counties led by black voters and those younger than 30 couldn’t overtake the Republican nominee’s advantages elsewhere.
Warren Strickler had a simple reason for choosing Trump: “He isn’t Hillary.”
The 60-year-old real estate agent said he generally votes for Republican
“I’m worried there will be no health care options. I’m worried — a lot — about climate change. I’m worried for my students and some of their families who have come from Mexico.”
— KAREN TAYLOR, TEACHER
or Libertarian candidates. He didn’t support Trump in the primary, instead opting for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, but said he considers Clinton corrupt and doesn’t agree with her policies, either.
Exit polling suggests Trump’s supporters in Georgia had serious change in mind when they went to the polls on Tuesday. Four in 10 voters in Georgia said the ability to bring about needed change was the top quality they sought. Of that group, more than eight in 10 cast ballots for Trump. Trump’s voters in Georgia also trended older and less diverse; three-quarters of white voters supported him along with nearly seven in 10 voters older than 65.
The state’s demographics are on track to make Democrats more competitive, as more minorities move to the state and the percentage of white registered voters continues to decline. But the numbers alone didn’t make Georgia poachable for Clinton this year.
Karen Taylor, 52, cast a ballot for Clinton in a northern suburb of Atlanta based on the former secretary of state’s experience. Taylor, a fourth-grade teacher, said she was feeling “very upset and stunned” by Trump’s victory on Wednesday, hours after watching the results at a friend’s home.
“I’m worried there will be no health care options,” she said. “I’m worried — a lot — about climate change. I’m worried for my students and some of their families who have come from Mexico.”