Elections in Georgia (U.S. State) - History

History

Following the end of martial law and readmission to the Union during Reconstruction, Georgia was overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party. It existed under one-party rule for a hundred years as did many other former states of the Confederacy. White voters often perceived the Republican Party as the party of the North standing for Yankee values, growing industrialisation, and an excessively powerful and interfering federal government all arrayed against their localized agricultural society. The abolition of slavery by amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the legacy of an economy damaged by war and social upheaval led many to bitterly oppose a wide variety of national policies.

Elections to the U.S. Congress during this period also saw both exclusively Democratic senators and either totally or almost-totally Democratic House delegations.From 1872 to 2002, Georgia voters consistently elected Democrats as governor and Democratic majorities to the state legislature.

Historically, elections at all levels of government in the U.S. state of Georgia was dominated by conservative white Democrats in the period between Reconstruction and the end of the New Deal Coalition. For decades, Republicans were a tiny minority, generally associated with Union military victory at the end of the Civil War. Beginning in the 1950s, the credible enforcement of new laws inspired by the Civil Rights Movement began to steadily erode the preponderance of Democrats in elective office in Georgia. The repeal of Jim Crow laws allowed previously disenfranchised African Americans to vote in elections and be active in politics. As many of these people joined with some white Democrats to work for more immediate liberal and pluralistic policies, a growing number of conservative white Democrats who supported either gradual change or none at all became Republicans, making Georgia politically competitive throughout the late 20th century. By the end of the 1950s, especially the strong showing in Georgia by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1956 presidential race, the Republican Party appeared positioned to gain even more ground in the coming years. The Democratic Party did not carry the state from the 1960 presidential election until Georgia's Jimmy Carter ran for the White House 16 years later.

Beginning with Barry Goldwater's presidential bid in 1964, the Republican Party began making inroads in Georgia. In time, the Republican Party of Georgia would field competitive candidates and win races for seats in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Widespread migration from northern states to the Atlanta suburbs later permitted Republican candidates to win races for seats in the Georgia General Assembly.

In presidential races, Georgia has not given its electoral college votes to the Republican candidate only four times since 1964: in 1968, segregationist George Wallace won a plurality of Georgia's votes on the American Independent Party ticket; former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter won his home state by landslide margins in 1976 and 1980; and then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won a plurality of votes in 1992 against incumbent Republican George H. W. Bush and Independent Ross Perot. Republican George W. Bush won Georgia in 2000 and 2004 with 54.67% and 57.97%, respectively, of the vote. However, in 2008, John McCain won the state by 5 points, 52% to Democrat Barack Obama's 47%.

By 2007, conservative Republicans had become the dominant force in state elections, with Republicans holding the offices of governor and lieutenant governor and significant majorities in both houses of the state General Assembly. U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson are together considered to be one of the most conservative Senate delegations. Since 2005, Georgia's U.S. House delegation has been composed of 7 Republicans and 6 Democrats.

As in many states, Democratic strongholds in Georgia include urban and minority-dominated areas. Democrats typically fare well in cities such as Atlanta, Macon, and Columbus, which have large minority populations, as well as Athens, home of the University of Georgia. The Republican Party dominates state elections through its hold on rural south Georgia, with a very notable exception in the southwestern part of the state; the Appalachian north; and many of Atlanta's suburbs. Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, co-author of the Contract with America and architect of the 1994 "Republican Revolution," was from Cobb County, a conservative suburban Atlanta county.