Election Results: Douglas County Voted For Clinton

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — It wasn't enough to flip Georgia from red to blue, as some eager Democrats had hoped.

But in a possible portent of things to come in the future of Peach State politics, suburban Douglas County backed Democrat Hillary Clinton, not Republican Donald Trump, in Tuesday's presidential election.

And, despite losing the state and the national election, Clinton bested Trump in Douglas by more than 10 percentage points.

Clinton took 30,971 votes, or roughly 54 percent, in Douglas County, while Trump garnered 24,803, for 43.2 percent.

Libertarian Gary Johnson won about 2.8 percent, with 1,591 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.

If Georgia is going to continue sliding from red to blue — or at least purple — it is metro Atlanta suburbs like Douglas that, in large part, are going to make it happen.

The county backed Democratic President Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, but only by slim margins.

He defeated opponent Sen. John McCain by a 50.5-48.7 margin in Douglas in 2008 and bested Mitt Romney by a similarly narrow gap, 51.5-47.5, in 2012.

According to 2015 U.S. Census estimates, Douglas County is roughly 50 percent white and 45 percent black.

As those minority numbers continue to rise, analysts see a future where their votes combine with those of transplants to the state to make Georgia a perennial battleground.

In Tuesday's election, a pair of black Democrats defeated white, Republican opponents in countywide races for sheriff and county commission chairman.

Douglas also supported Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, who lost to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, 28,138-25,086.

Image via Pixabay