ATLANTA (AP) – Hillary Clinton’s decisive primary victory in Georgia confirmed one maxim in state politics: Democrats need African-American voters to win.
Clinton’s victory over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hinged on turning out the state’s large black population, which is a historically Democratic voting bloc. About 4 in 10 voters in Georgia’s Democratic primary were African-American, and about 8 in 10 of them favored Clinton. That mirrors her strong showing among black voters in South Carolina over the weekend and in other Southern states Tuesday.
But Donald Trump’s victory in the GOP presidential primary threw expectations about blocs of Republican voters into disarray. The brash businessman and reality television star’s anti-Washington message won support from Georgia Republicans regardless of age, income, education level or region. Recent presidential primaries have split support among candidates by region. In 2008, for instance, Mike Huckabee dominated rural parts of the state while Mitt Romney won metro Atlanta counties and John McCain peeled off support elsewhere.
Trump received support from nearly half of GOP voters who described themselves as moderate and also won over about 4 in 10 voters who described themselves as evangelical. About 6 in 10 Republicans who said they wanted an outsider to be the next president went for Trump. Joining them Tuesday at a library in Atlanta’s well-off Buckhead neighborhood was Ty McCain, who characterized his vote for Donald Trump as an “anti-establishment” choice.
McCain said he admired Trump’s early “self-funded” approach to the campaign. Trump initially made a personal loan to his campaign and later began accepting contributions.