Election Results: Gwinnett County Voted For Clinton

LAWRENCEVILLE, 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 Gwinnett 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 Gwinnett by nearly 6 percentage points.

Clinton took 165,063 votes, or roughly 51 percent, in Gwinnett, while Trump garnered 146,463, for 45.2 percent.

Libertarian Gary Johnson won about 3.8 percent, with 12,405 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 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 Gwinnett that, in large part, are going to make it happen.

Considered a staunch Republican stronghold for decades, Gwinnett has, over the years, become one of the most diverse counties in the nation.

According to 2015 U.S. Census estimates, Gwinnett is 39.6 percent white, 27.6 percent black, 11.8 percent Asian and 20.5 percent Hispanic.

As those minority numbers continue to rise, particularly as they join the rolls of registered voters, analysts see a future where their votes combine with those of transplants to the state to make Georgia a perennial battleground.

Despite its support for Clinton, Gwinnett wasn't a lock for Democrats up and down the ticket.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Gwinnett County voters sided with Republican incumbent Johnny Isakson over Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, 154,019 to 140,204.

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