2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe Next State To Turn Blue?
By Karen Tumulty, Published: December 21
MACON, Ga. The two major parties here dont agree on many things. One of them is that it is only a matter of time before Georgia goes from being a Republican stronghold to a state that is up for grabs.
In next years elections, Democrats will be looking to speed that process along with a couple of candidates who bring fresh faces and familiar names.
They are Senate contender Michelle Nunn, an executive who is also the daughter of former senator Sam Nunn, and gubernatorial hopeful Jason Carter, a third-term state senator who is a grandson of former president Jimmy Carter.
Nunn and Carter face tough odds, given that Georgia has not elected a non-incumbent Democrat to any statewide office since the waning years of the last century. But recent demographic shifts suggest a new electoral equation could be forming and probably more quickly than in much-talked-about Texas.
The face of the state is being changed by an influx of African Americans and Latinos. Although whites accounted for 71 percent of Georgians who voted in the 2004 elections, that share had dropped by nearly 10 percentage points in 2012.
Last year, President Obamas reelection campaign pretty much ignored Georgia, but he still got more than 45 percent of the vote. Of the states that Obama lost to Republican Mitt Romney, Georgia had the second-narrowest margin, behind battleground North Carolina.
Democrats say all they need now is more money, better organization and the right names on the ballot the last of which they believe they have found in Nunn and Carter, who present themselves as affable consensus-builders willing to reach across party lines.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michelle-nunn-jason-carter-hope-to-rechart-the-course-of-georgia-politics/2013/12/21/a2611bfc-5e9b-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,614 posts)VirginiaTarheel
(823 posts)There are currently more white liberals in NC/VA than in GA. So, although there are more nonwhites in GA, whites are more solidly Republican there.
King_Klonopin
(1,306 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)The one that can hold its breath the longest.*
*Lessons taught to me by a 3 year old.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)It's not there yet - but it's getting there.
CSStrowbridge
(267 posts)Turning Georgia purple would be a victory. It more resources the GOP has to spend on the defensive, which makes victory for them so much harder.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida come to mind in terms of the governor and legislatures.
otohara
(24,135 posts)We hit bottom back in 2000 when she proudly stated she was just fine with all the disenfranchising/scrubbing of voters in Florida. After divorcing cool husband #2, she married a Republican....it took several years to change her, but change she did.
She called a month ago and was going on and on about the black people throwing trash on her road. Then after 13 years she decides to send me one of those wingnut hate Obama emails. And that was the end of our 3 week reunion.
She sounded stupid.