According to the Associated Press, former President Donald Trump won 16 electoral votes in Georgia.
The victory returns Georgia to the GOP column after the state supported President Joe Biden in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes.
Georgia Democrats gathered in downtown Atlanta for election night hoped the untold votes from metro Atlanta would be enough to tip the scales in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. But just before 11 p.m., Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters that Trump had an “insurmountable lead.”
“It looks like it has already been done,” he said.
The Associated Press called the race just before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
At the Republican Party’s election night event in Buckhead, state GOP Chairman Josh McKoon declared victory around 10:30 p.m., before the AP’s call.
“People were talking about reversing this. Well, that was a fluke. We’re back!”
In the final weeks of the election, both presidential candidates campaigned feverishly in Georgia. Georgia was seen as one of seven swing states, a remarkable change from just a decade ago, when presidential candidates spent relatively little time and money here.
Campaigns struggled to win suburban women and black men on home turf, with Harris finding powerful support among women and Trump appearing to gain popularity among black voters, especially men.
Voters responded with a enormous turnout – over 5 million people cast ballots. Georgia has 8.2 million registered voters.
Since 2020, Georgia has been at the center of national politics. President Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since former President Bill Clinton. Georgia voters returned months later to flip two U.S. Senate seats and hand control of the chamber to Democrats.
However, in 2022, Democrats running statewide struggled and only U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock won his race in a runoff.
An crucial moment in this year’s elections also took place in this country. It was in an Atlanta television studio where President Joe Biden shocked audiences across the country by scrolling through closely watched CNN debate in slow June, which ultimately led to his decision to withdraw from the race and endorse the vice president to run in his place.
This created frenzied pressure on Harris to launch an abbreviated campaign, which she quickly brought to Georgia for packed rally. Harris, who regularly visited Georgia as vice president, returned to the Peach State several times and sent a parade of high-profile surrogates as part of her mission – including Clinton, the Obamas and an array of stars such as Megan Thee Stallion and Bruce Springsteen. in court with Georgia voters.
Georgia also plays a key role in Trump’s years-long insistence that the 2020 election was rigged against him, though the results were affirmed after three allegations — including one handcrafted — and unsuccessful court challenges.
In 2023, Trump and 18 of his allies were charged with what Fulton County prosecutors say was a coordinated attempt to overturn election results in Georgia and several other states.
Four of Trump’s co-defendants pleaded guilty, but the case stalled after revelations that District Attorney Fani Willis was in a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor handling the case. On December 5, the Georgia Court of Appeals will hear arguments on an appeal by Trump and other defendants who argue that Willis should be barred from prosecution in an election interference case.
Georgia lawmakers have since changed state election law in response to concerns about certain aspects of the 2020 election, including an augment in mail-in voting during the pandemic.
But belated efforts by members of the Trump-aligned State Board of Elections to further improve the rules — including requiring election workers to count ballots by hand on election night — have been blocked by court challenges.
3.6 million votes were cast during early voting in Georgia, and more than 344,000 absentee ballots were returned to county election offices before Tuesday.
Under Georgia’s up-to-date law, for the 2024 election, for the first time, local election offices were required to publish the combined results of early voting and absentee ballots returned before Election Day by one hour after polls close on election night.
Raffensperger said after polls closed Tuesday night that Georgia’s elections are more secure because of up-to-date election rules such as photo ID requirements for absentee voting and Georgia joining a multi-state coalition to ensure more right voter rolls.
Registrar from Georgia is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. The Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact editor John McCosh: [email protected]. Follow the Georgia Recorder on Facebook AND X.
