Election Results: Forsyth County Backed Trump Big

CUMMING, GA — The flipping of Georgia from red to blue, which some eager Democrats had hoped for, didn't happen.

While some metro Atlanta suburbs that have traditionally voted Republican did side with Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's presidential race, Donald Trump can thank GOP stalwarts like Forsyth County for his win in the Peach State.

And it wasn't even close.

Trump took 69,801 votes, or roughly 72 percent, in Forsyth County, while Clinton garnered a mere 23,427, or 24 percent.

Libertarian Gary Johnson won about 4 percent, with 4,086 votes.

Statewide, Georgia reflected national results in the election, with Trump outperforming his poll numbers in state after state.

Trump won 51 percent of the vote in Georgia — 2,076,119 votes — to Clinton's nearly 46 percent, or 1,853,445 votes.

Johnson claimed 123,881 backers statewide, for 3 percent of the vote.

Polls leading up to the election had listed Georgia either as a toss-up state or one where Trump lead by a slim margin.

In contrast to previous elections, in which Democrats made only token efforts in the state, Clinton sent staffers to Georgia and put ads on the air, hoping to improbably flip a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since backing her husband, Bill Clinton, in 1992.

In suburbs like Douglas, Gwinnett and Henry counties, this year's vote did flip in Clinton's favor. But not Forsyth, which remained a reliable pile of votes for the GOP.

In 2012, about 80 percent went to Republican challenger Mitt Romney, compared to just 20 percent for President Barack Obama. In 2008, Obama lost the county to Sen. John McCain by virtually the same margin — 79 percent to 20.

While growing minority populations in some of metro Atlanta's suburbs have begun tilting the scales toward the Democrats, Forsyth County remains nearly 84 percent white, according to 2015 U.S. Census estimates.

Forsyth County also overwhelmingly supported incumbent U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, in Tuesday's vote.

Isakson garnered 70,788 votes, or 75 percent, compared to 18,137 (19 percent) for Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale.
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