Former President Donald Trump flipped a Georgia county red for the first time in 20 years, as Democrats’ margin shrank.
Rural Baldwin County was one of at least three swing counties in the battleground state of Georgia that could have gone either way.
With 99 percent of the votes cast, the Republican presidential candidate received 50.9 percent of the vote to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 48.6 percent.
In Georgia, President Joe Biden’s 2020 margin was 1.3 percent, compared to 1.7 percent for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Baldwin County, with a population of approximately 43,000, is not close to the battleground state’s major metropolitan areas, but it does have two higher education institutions: Georgia College and State University and Georgia Military College.
Baldwin’s diversity has made it a competitive swing county in recent elections, with no candidate receiving more than 52.9 percent of the vote since 1992.
The county last voted for a Republican candidate in 2004, when President George W. Bush received 52.89 percent of the votes. No Democratic Party candidate has received such a high percentage since.
Donald Trump Georgia Flip County
The county is part of Georgia’s 8th Congressional District, where incumbent Representative Austin Scott received 68.8 percent of the vote, compared to 31.2 percent for Democratic rival Darrius Butler. Scott received a slightly lower share of the vote in Baldwin, at 54.9 percent.
The Peach State is one of a few races that are expected to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
According to 538’s tracking, Trump led Harris by 0.8 percentage points on average in statewide polling heading into Election Day.
CNN’s exit poll Tuesday night, which was likely to fluctuate, found Harris with a large lead among Black voters in Georgia (86 percent to 12 percent) and among Georgia voters aged 18 to 29 (60 percent to 39 percent). Trump led among white voters without a college degree (81% to 18%).
Exit polls provide detailed demographic information about elections as well as insights into voters’ attitudes. The final results of the 2024 presidential election may not be announced until later this week.
Georgia and its 16 electoral votes are expected to play a key role in determining the next president of the United States.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in the state by just under 12,000 votes. Trump won Georgia by more than 200,000 votes in 2016.
