Since the 2020 US Presidential election, Georgia has rocketed into the centre of America’s political universe. Over the last four years, politics have become almost as synonymous with the Peach State as sweet tea and pimento cheese.
One does not have to look much further than the number of times the presidential candidates have visited the state in the run-up to the election as an indicator of significance to winning the 2024 election. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have underscored how winning Georgia would help seal four-years in the White House. With its 16 electoral votes, the state is expected to be among a handful of consequential battlegrounds. But winning Georgia was not always part of the strategy for the White House for either Republicans or Democrats. So, what’s changed?
Atlanta has always been the unofficial capital of the South, the destination for smaller-town residents in the southeast seeking their first jobs in the big city. But in the last 20 years, Georgia has seen a boom of newly arrived transplants from more liberal-leaning states like California. As the movie industry continues to establish its footprint, that profession has brought with it countless more newcomers who have decided to take up permanent residence in Georgia. More recently, the comparatively cheaper cost of living has attracted those who may not have traditionally seen the sometimes-sweltering state as desirable.
The voting habits of these arrivals have also driven change. At the same time, Atlanta is rapidly becoming younger and more diverse—among several key factors that have loosened the Republican grip on the state.
But perhaps what has kept politicos talking about Georgia has been the emergence of dynamic political voices. From Democratic darling Stacey Abrams and her historic registration of nearly a million new voters, to Republican U.S. Representative and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has become a poster-girl for the shoot-from-the-hip opinions and outrageous rhetoric that characterizes America’s right wing. Love them or hate them, people are paying attention to Georgia’s politicians.
Simultaneously, the state has been brought further into focus nationally because of the ongoing rift between Make America Great Again (MAGA) loyalists and more conventional conservatives, a microcosm of what is playing out nationally within the Republican party.
Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp and its Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have become frequent targets of verbal attacks by Trump after they refused to endorse his conspiracies that the 2020 election was stolen. That vitriol has raised the profile of both politicians, and by default has helped elevate Georgia to more national discussions.
One issue both campaigns appear to be targeting is healthcare. In 2019, Georgia passed one of the strictest laws in the land, which prohibited abortion after about six weeks; it was to take effect should Roe v. Wade be overturned—which the Supreme Court did in June 2022. Vice President Harris has singled out the 2019 legislation and used it to underscore the dangers of a lack of safe abortion access. Meanwhile, Trump has chosen instead to focus on culture-war issues around healthcare, flooding the airwaves with claims that Harris will pay for gender reassignment surgeries for convicted criminals if she wins.
The conversations about Georgia’s importance seem to have animated voters, who have already turned out in historic numbers. The first day of early voting in Georgia saw nearly double the numbers of the same day in 2020. More than 3 million Georgians cast early votes in the first two weeks after polling opened, a record in the state.
Prior to 2020, Democrats might have seized on a historic early turnout as good news. But many Democratic strategists have chosen instead to take a beat, especially because this election cycle Republicans have made a big push for early voting as part of their strategy. In fact, so far, some of the more ruby-red parts of the state have outpaced voting numbers seen in the more Democratic-blue strongholds of metro-Atlanta.
There’s a slogan you see often in the city of Atlanta, proudly displayed on t-shirts, street art and souvenirs; it says simply, “Atlanta Influences Everything” and in 2020 it did. Indeed, there are some Atlantans who are quick to take credit for saving democracy by helping defeat Donald Trump by less than 12,000 votes and sending two Democrats to the Senate in 2020-21.
For decades, Georgia was almost a guarantee for Republicans. If 2020 showed us anything, it’s that Georgia is up for grabs. The stakes could scarcely be higher.
Nick Valencia, National Correspondent, CNN
