Georgia, the largest state east of the Mississippi River in land area, is home to several endangered species. Voters there added another one — Democrats — to the list on Tuesday. Given the results of the midterm election, it is clear that the party presence in the state is extremely limited. It’s not extinct — yet — but its adherents appear to be headed in that direction.
The GOP electoral triumph in Georgia was authoritative. Not a single Democrat won a statewide race. When Republicans assume power in the new year, it will be the first time since Reconstruction that no Democrat will hold a statewide office. That’s a precipitous fall for a political party that as recently as 2000 ruled much of state’s political landscape.
Democrats could do little to stem the Republican tide. The GOP’s Nathan Deal overcame pointed questions about his ethics and personal finances to handily defeat former Democratic governor Roy Barnes for the state’s highest office. Republicans either retained or took every other statewide office on the ballot — from lieutenant governor to agriculture commissioner to state school superintendent to public service commission. Georgia has increasingly voted Republican in recent years, but Tuesday’s results leave little doubt that Democrats are not only endangered, but likely face years in political purgatory.
The sweep of statewide offices is not the only problem facing the state’s Democrats. Tuesday’s results also indicate that the party is in trouble at the local and district level. The GOP reaffirmed its hold on the General Assembly, where it already had majorities large enough to approve all legislation except the relatively few measures that require a two-thirds vote. Indeed, effective control of the General Assembly is likely the greatest prize Georgia Republicans claimed on Tuesday.
Control of the legislative branch has especial significance in the year following the nation’s census. Members of the General Assembly — like legislators in other states — will redraw political districts during the upcoming term. They’ll set the district boundaries for both the state’s legislative and Congressional districts. Republicans will work diligently and no doubt successfully to consolidate their power as they reconfigure political districts. Democrats might complain, but their concern will go unheeded. Given the chance, those currently in the minority would promote their own interests if they were in the majority.