After bitter defeat in 2020, Trump comes back to win Georgia in 2024
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Zebulon Oct. 23. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
Former President Donald Trump has won Georgia's 16 electoral votes, according to the Associated Press.
The win puts Georgia back into the Republican column after the state backed President Joe Biden in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes.
Georgia Democrats gathered in downtown Atlanta for an election night party had remained hopeful that the uncounted votes from metro Atlanta would be enough to tilt the race in Vice President Kamala Harris' favor. But just before 11 p.m., Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters that Trump had an "insurmountable lead."
"It looks like this is done," he said.
The Associated Press called the race just before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
At a Republican election night party in Buckhead, state GOP Chairman Josh McKoon declared victory at about 10:30 p.m., before the AP's call.
"People talked about this state being flipped. Well, it was a fluke. We're back!"
Both presidential candidates campaigned feverishly in Georgia in the final weeks of the election. Georgia was seen as one of seven swing states, a remarkable shift from just a decade ago when presidential candidates spent comparatively little time or money here.
The campaigns jockeyed to win over suburban women and Black men in the homestretch, with Harris finding strong support among women and Trump appearing to make inroads with Black voters, particularly men.
Voters responded with strong turnout, with more than 5 million people casting a ballot. Georgia has 8.2 million registered voters.
Georgia has been firmly at the center of national politics since 2020. President Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since former President Bill Clinton. Georgia voters came back a few months later to flip two U.S. Senate seats and hand Democrats control of the chamber.
But Democrats running statewide struggled in 2022, with only U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock winning his race in a runoff.
The state was also the setting for a major moment in this year's election. It was in a TV studio in Atlanta where President Joe Biden shocked a national audience as he fumbled through the closely watched CNN debate in late June, ultimately leading to his decision to bow out of the race and endorse his vice president to run in his place.
That set up a frenzied push for Harris to launch an abbreviated campaign, which she quickly brought to Georgia for a packed rally . Harris, who regularly visited Georgia as vice president, would return to the Peach State several times and dispatch a parade of high-profile surrogates – including Clinton, the Obamas and a series of star performers like Megan Thee Stallion and Bruce Springsteen – in her quest to court Georgia voters.
Georgia has also been a central part of Trump's yearslong insistence that the 2020 election was rigged against him, though the results were confirmed after three counts – including one done by hand – and unsuccessful court challenges.
Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in 2023 for what Fulton County prosecutors argue was a coordinated attempt to overturn the election results in Georgia and a handful of other states.
Four of Trump's co-defendants pleaded guilty, but the case was stalled after it was revealed that District Attorney Fani Willis had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor handling the case. The Georgia Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Dec. 5 on an appeal from Trump and other defendants who argue Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case.
Georgia lawmakers have since changed the state's election laws in response to concerns over aspects of the 2020 election, including the surge in absentee voting during the pandemic.
But a late push by Trump-aligned members of the State Election Board to further tweak the rules – including a requirement that poll workers do a hand count of ballots on election night – were blocked by court challenges.
There were 3.6 million votes cast in Georgia during early voting, while more than 344,000 absentee ballots were returned to county election offices prior to Tuesday.
A new Georgia law made the 2024 election the first time local election offices were required to post by one hour after polls closed election night the total results from early voting and absentee ballots that were returned prior to Election Day.
Raffensperger said after polls closed Tuesday night that Georgia's elections are more secure because of new election rules, such as photo ID requirements for absentee ballot voting and Georgia joining a multi-state coalition to keep voter rolls more accurate.
