Suburbanites are saving the Democrats in Georgia -- and elsewhere

[Fla Dem]

Suburbanites are saving the Democrats in Georgia — and elsewhere

By Perry Bacon Jr. Columnist
November 28, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EST
Washington Post
MARIETTA, Ga. — Cobb County was established in the 1830s by White Americans on land that had been occupied by Cherokees, who were forced to move west in what is now known as the Trail of Tears. It is named after Thomas W. Cobb, who was a U.S. congressman and senator representing Georgia in the early 19th century and owned enslaved Black people. Perhaps the most important figure associated with Cobb is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who represented the county in Congress in the early 1990s and is in many ways the intellectual godfather of today’s Republican Party.

But Cobb has changed dramatically. It’s now run by a majority-Black county commission. And Cobb is part of a group of suburban counties in the Atlanta area that has become increasingly Democratic and turned Georgia into a swing state.

In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry lost Georgia by 17 percentage points, including a 25-point defeat in Cobb. Two years ago, Joe Biden very narrowly won Georgia, in part because of his 14-point victory in Cobb. Sen. Raphael G. Warnock carried Cobb by 16 points in this month’s election and will need a similar margin to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in their Dec. 6 runoff.

The electoral transformation of Cobb County is part of a broader shift happening in U.S. politics. Over the past decade, Americans who live in rural areas, a group that already leaned toward the Republicans, has become even more conservative. Urban areas are increasingly Democratic, but cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia were already so left-leaning that there wasn’t much room for Democratic growth. What’s been the saving grace for the Democrats in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections has been voters in suburban areas backing the party, particularly around Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Phoenix.

Break............................

Three factors are driving this suburban shift to the Democrats. First, the residents in these suburbs, particularly around Atlanta, are increasingly Asian, Black and/or Hispanic. In Cobb, 49 percent of residents are Asian, Black and/or Hispanic, compared with 28 percent two decades ago. In Gwinnett, another Atlanta-area county that has flipped decidedly to Democrats, about 66 percent of residents are Asian, Black and/or Hispanic compared with about a third in 2000.


Second, younger and more liberal-leaning White people are also moving to these suburbs, both from nearby cities and other regions. These suburban areas are seeing a surge in residents with college degrees. Increased education tends to be correlated with more progressive views on issues of race and identity and with voting for Democrats.

More............................

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/warnock-walker-georgia-suburbs-cobb-county-democrats-senate/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F386f766%2F6384e4203564ae5f7528ca14%2F602bea569bbc0f73f6ccfcfc%2F16%2F72%2F6384e4203564ae5f7528ca14&wp_cu=fc9b354d4f42fec17f7292a2ca3549fa%7CBB76BEEB22F51E95E0530100007F0C79

[David__77]

1. Seems more like homogenization of metropolitan areas.

Where I live, most “suburbs” seem more culturally integrated with the urban core than in the past.

[Freethinker65]

2. How about this. Voting for Democrats is saving America.

Any subset of the US population that turns out to vote can help sway an election.

I understand the analysis of recent voter trends post elections is fascinating to statisticians, and might be important in future elections if the trends continue. Unfortunately the analyses often are used to stereotype by race, geography, age, income and education level, and other demographics.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. Saving Democrats....or saving themselves?

[OAITW r.2.0]

4. Saving Democrats....or saving themselves?

I really dislike the framing of this article.