Election Results: Paulding County Backed Trump Big

DALLAS, 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 on Tuesday, Donald Trump can thank GOP stalwarts like Paulding County for his win in the Peach State.

And it wasn't even close.

Trump took 44,646 votes, or roughly 69 percent, in Paulding County, while Clinton garnered a mere 18,004, or 28 percent.

Libertarian Gary Johnson won about 3 percent, with 1,951 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 Paulding, which remained a reliable pile of votes for the GOP.

In 2012, 68.9 percent went to Republican challenger Mitt Romney, compared to 30.2 percent for President Barack Obama. In 2008, Obama lost the county to Sen. John McCain by virtually the same margin — 68.8 percent to 30.2.

While growing minority populations in some of metro Atlanta's suburbs have begun tilting the scales toward the Democrats, Paulding County remains 73 percent white, according to 2015 U.S. Census estimatates.

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

Isakson garnered 42,957 votes, or 69.5 percent, compared to 15,714 (25.4 percent) for Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale.

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