By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher
DEC. 11, 2018 | Georgia Democrats may be encouraged by their 2018 election showing, but they should not be so upbeat about any long term prospect at winning control over the state soon.
All it takes is a look at the results in the two runoff elections.
While the Democratic candidate, John Barrow, in the general election ran only 0.42 percent behind the eventual winner, Brad Raffensperger for Secretary of State, it wasn’t nearly as close in the runoff. Raffensperger won the runoff by 3.94 percent, 754,017 to 702,547. (All the figures are from elections results on the web from the Secretary of State’s office.)
It was a similar story in the runoff race for Public Service Commissioner. Chuck Eaton, the Republican, won over Lindy Miller by 3.66 percent. In the General Election, Eaton won by a smaller margin, 2.07 percent.
Georgia Democrats surprised most people by the closeness of the outcome in the General Election. While the Republicans were favored, still the Democrat candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, was only 1.39 percent behind the eventual winner. The final outcome was a difference of 54,773, the closest any Democrat has come in the race for governor since Roy Barnes actually won in 1999.
The candidate who came closest to winning an office in the General Election was John Barrow, up against Brad Raffensperger for Secretary of State. When the final count was over, Barrow was only 16,278 votes behind in this General Election race. (Of course, with a third party in this race, it went to a runoff, where Barrow lost by 51,470 votes.)
And which candidate got the most votes in the General Election? That would be Superintendent of Schools Republican Richard Woods, who garnered 2,048,003 votes, winning with 53.02 percent. The next closest vote for was Republican Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black, who had 2,040,097 votes. Black also had the highest percentage of victory, with 53.08 percent.
For the top spot on the ballot, Brian Kemp had 1,978,408 votes (50.22 percent), while Stacey Adams had 1,923,605, or 48.83 percent.
It’s all about who turns out. A friend reminded me prior to the runoff that the Republicans would prevail in his race, “Because Republicans turn out in runoffs better than Democrats.” I’m sure others recognized this, but it was a new thought to us. And it proved true in 2018.
That’s why it appears to us that the euphoria that the Democrats felt immediately after the election somewhat evaporates when you take into consideration the results of the runoff. For, quite simply, the Democrats did not return to the polls as well as did the Republicans. And that should alarm Democrats.
After all, Democrats had lots of vim and vigor in 2018 with Stacey Abrams shaking the bushes and garnering lots of interest and the most votes by a loser for governor ever in the race. It’s will take such a candidate at the head of the ticket generating that zest for politics for the Democrats to eventually turn Georgia back into a blue state.
Another key factor for Democrats to have a winning strategy will be to find a way to win not only in urban and suburban areas, but to win in the less populated parts of the state. Ms. Abrams might be able to call herself governor had she done only a little bit better particularly in South Georgia.
Democrats are doing amazingly well in Georgia compared to a few years ago, but still have a long way to find themselves big winners.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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