Joe Biden owes Senate majority to heavy Black turnout across Georgia
Published Date: 1/8/2021
Source: axios.com
Data: Georgia Secretary of State; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios

President-elect Joe Biden owes his upcoming Senate majority to game-changing turnout Tuesday by African American voters across Georgia, according to Axios’ analysis of state election data.

The big picture: Turnout in runoff elections usually pales in comparison to general elections. This time, in every Georgia county, the number of votes cast Tuesday was at least 80% of the turnout in November. In Randolph County, which is 62% Black, turnout was 96%.


By the numbers: Half of the top-10 highest-turnout counties compared to November were majority Black counties. At least a third of the population was Black in seven of those counties.

  • Trump held a last-minute rally for the Republican incumbents in Whitfield County, which is majority white. It ended up seeing just 86% of its November turnout — on the lower end, compared to other counties.

What they're saying: The Cook Political Report's David Wasserman told Axios the biggest tipoff about how Tuesday night would end was turnout in the outlying counties of Atlanta, plus some rural counties where the Black church is central to political organizing,

  • The other factor: "[David] Perdue and [Kelly] Loeffler’s embrace of Trump and Trump’s subsequent questioning of and attacks on the elections in Georgia."