A ‘blue wave’ in Georgia? These are the counties that gave Biden an edge in election
Metro Atlanta isn’t the only blue dot in formerly deep-red Georgia.
In 2020, heavily Democratic cities like Savannah, Columbus and Macon also delivered important votes for former Vice President Joe Biden.
Georgia is still counting ballots and has yet to determine if Biden or Trump will take the Peach State. But the former vice-president was ahead by more than 1,500 votes on Friday afternoon. A vote recount is expected.
Anissa Jones, chairperson of the Macon-Bibb Democratic Party, said that even after several election cycles in which Democrats made relatively strong showings, it was still a bit of a shock to see the state where she’s lived her entire life shift more blue.
“We definitely were championing for a blue wave,... we had all boots on the ground to embrace a blue wave, like we are always, every single election phase,” said Jones. “But I don’t think any of us thought that Georgia was going to be one of the states that could determine the presidency.”
Turnout was up almost everywhere. And one trend in blue and red counties alike: support for the libertarian candidate was way down, with Jill Jorgensen securing far fewer votes than Gary Johnson even with much greater participation.
Here are some Georgia regions that played key roles in the race:
Democratic enclaves
This year, Columbus’s Muscogee County, Athens’ Clarke County, Savannah’s Chatham County, and Macon’s Macon-Bibb County expanded their margins for the Democratic candidate over 2016, when they were already heavily blue.
Jones described three main drivers of boosted Democratic turnout in traditionally blue areas. First, the defeat of Stacey Abrams by less than half a percentage point in the 2018 gubernatorial race was still painful.
“‘We don’t want what happened last time to happen again,’” Jones said people were thinking. “How can we get in front of that, what can we alter or do differently this time, that could make a better outcome?”
Second, President Trump’s handling of the pandemic motivated many Democratic voters. And finally, the national focus on systemic racism after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer brought both white and Black Democrats to the polls, Jones said.
In Georgia, counties with large Black populations were essential to Biden’s margin in the state, and to the success of other Democratic candidates. Macon-Bibb County is 54% Black, 41% white and about 3% Latino.
Here’s a breakdown of the vote in some of Georgia’s blue enclaves outside of Atlanta:
Muscogee County (Columbus)
- 2020: Trump: 37.9% - 29,949 / Biden: 61.42% - 49,201 / Jorgensen: 1.19% - 954
- 2016: Trump: 39.29% - 26,976 / Clinton: 58.04% - 39,851 / Johnson: 2.67% - 1,831
Macon-Bibb County (Macon)
- 2020: Trump: 37.61% - 26,506 / Biden: 61.34% - 43,234 / Jorgensen: 1.05% - 740
- 2016: Trump - 38.61% - 24,043 / Clinton - 59.07% - 36,787 / Johnson - 2.42% - 1,447
Clarke County (Athens)
- 2020: Trump: 28.15% - 14,385 / Biden: 70.22% - 35,882 / Jorgensen: 1.63% - 831
- 2016: Trump - 28.68% - 12,717 / Clinton - 66.77% - 29,603 / Johnson - 4.55% - 2,019
Chatham County (Savannah)
- 2020: Trump: 39.92% -53,173 / Biden: 58.65% - 78,128 / Jorgensen: 1.44% - 1,914
- 2016: Trump: 40.98% - 45,688 / Clinton: 55.87% - 62,290 / Johnson: 3.14% - 3,503
Dougherty County (Albany)
- 2020: Trump - 29.68% - 10,419 / Biden - 69.53% - 24,407 / Jorgensen - 0.79% - 277
- 2016: Trump - 30.08% - 10,232 / Clinton- 68.53% - 23,311 / Johnson - 1.40% - 475
Conservative GA counties voted Trump
But the apparent shift to Biden was not representative of a wider “blue wave” across the Peach State. In other parts of the state that voted for Trump four years ago, President Trump actually increased his share of the vote.
In Bleckley, Crawford and Twiggs counties — all rural counties near Macon — Trump saw an increase in his support from the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, reflecting a deepening split seen elsewhere across the country between rural and urban voters. The Republican vote share in each county increased by 0.6% to 3% above his performance four years earlier, even as Biden outperformed Clinton’s vote total in each.
Trump’s winning margin in Twiggs grew from 1.6% in 2016 to 7.4% as of Friday afternoon. The race was even less competitive in Bleckley and Crawford, where Trump won by 53% and 46% respectively.
Democrats had hoped suburban voters uncomfortable with the president’s style would switch to Biden. In suburban Peach County, Trump grew his support from 50.5% in 2016 to 51.83%, nearly doubling his advantage in the county from 2.9% to 4.7%. The percentage of the vote going to Biden actually dropped slightly from Clinton’s total, from 47.6% to 47.2%.
Trump’s support did, however, drop in Houston County, south of Macon. While the president added an extra 6,000 votes to this total in the county that includes Robins Air Force Base, his percentage of Houston’s vote dropped from 59.3% to 55.5%. Biden improved on Clinton’s performance by more than 5% — 43% of the vote compared to 37.8% for Clinton. The former vice president also found another 10,000 Houston County voters to add to the Democrats’ 2016 support.
Here are results from the traditionally conservative, smaller Georgia counties. Not all of these went for Trump: Talbot County went for Clinton in 2016 and for Biden this year, as did Macon County.
Columbus area election results
Chattahoochee County
- 2020: Trump: 55.60% - 879 / Biden: 42.19% - 667 / Jorgensen: 2.21% - 35
- 2016: Trump 54.03% - 751 / Clinton - 42.73% - 594 / Johnson - 3.24% - 45
Harris County
- 2020: Trump: 71.64% - 14,305 / Biden: 27.29% - 5,450 / Jorgensen: 1.07% - 214
- 2016: Trump: 72.78% - 11,936 / Clinton - 24.91% - 4,086 / Johnson: 2.31% - 379
Marion County
- 2020: Trump: 62.78% - 2,275 / Biden: 36.19% - 1,311 / Jorgensen: 1.05% - 38
- 2016: Trump: 60.35% - 1,921 / Clinton: 38.11% - 1,213 / Johnson: 1.54% - 49
Meriwether County
- 2020: Trump: 60.01% - 6,522 / Biden: 39.39% - 4,281 / Jorgensen: 0.61% - 66
- 2016: Trump: 56.82% - 5,222 / Clinton: 41.39% - 3,804/ Johnson - 1.80% - 165
Talbot County
- 2020: Trump: 39.5% - 1,390 / Biden: 60.05% - 2,113 / Jorgensen: 0.45% - 16
- 2016: Trump: 36.87% - 1, 196 / Clinton: 61.71% - 2,002 / Johnson - 1.42% - 46
Taylor County
- 2020: Trump: 62.94% - 2,405 / Biden: 36.17% - 1,382 / Jorgensen: 0.89% - 34
- 2016: Trump: 60.62% - 2,064 / Clinton: 38.06% - 1,296: Johnson - 1.32% - 45
Troup County
- 2020: Trump: 60.39% - 18,097 / Biden: 38.52% - 11,542 / Jorgensen: 1.09% - 328
- 2016: Trump: 60.52% - 15,750 / Clinton: 37.32%- 9,713 / Johnson: 2.16% - 561
Macon area election results
Macon-Bibb County
- 2020: Trump: 38.25% - 1,783 / Biden: 61.28% - 2,857/ Jorgensen: 0.47% - 22
- 2016: Trump: 35.92% - 1,540 / Clinton: 63.1% - 2,705 / Johnson: 0.98% - 42
Peach County
- 2020: Trump: 51.83% - 6,491 / Biden: 47.19% - 5,910 / Jorgensen: 0.97% - 122
- 2016: Trump: 50.48% - 5,413 / Clinton: 47.56% - 5,100 / Johnson: 1.97% - 211
Houston County
- 2020: Trump: 55.54% - 41,468 / Biden: 43.05% - 32,419 / Jorgensen: 1.41% - 1,053
- 2016: Trump: 59.3% - 35,430 / Clinton: 37.75% - 22,553 / Johnson: 2.95% - 1,761
Jones County
- 2020: Trump: 66.6% - 9,960 / Biden: 32.66% - 4,884 / Jorgensen: 0.75% - 112
- 2016: Trump: 66.3% - 8,305 / Clinton: 31.62% - 3,961 / Johnson: 2.08% - 260
Crawford County
- 2020: Trump: 72.57% - 4,428 / Biden: 26.47% - 1,615 / Jorgensen: 0.97% - 59
- 2016: Trump: 70.42% - 3,635 / Clinton: 27.53% - 1,421 / Johnson - 2.05% - 106
Bleckley County
Twiggs County
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 4:15 PM with the headline "A ‘blue wave’ in Georgia? These are the counties that gave Biden an edge in election."
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