Georgia Has Been Blue for a Long Time

And now, finally, the longtime dreams of so many have been realized

Reverend Raphael Warnock speaks at a canvassing event in Marietta, Georgia. Photo:
Sandy Huffaker /Getty Images

I moved to Athens, Georgia from New York City in 2013 and found myself, much to my own surprise, eager to get involved in local politics. It was hard not to. I’d never lived in a red state before — though I’d certainly grown up in the red area of a blue state—but the possibility of Georgia seemed limitless. There was radically shifting demographics, a growing locus of Black power and influence in Atlanta and its surrounding areas, and an increasing number of media and entertainment professionals, people like me, looking to build our careers outside the traditional hubs of New York and California in a place with great schools, reasonably priced real estate, a diverse and vibrant community and, yeah, lovely weather just about the whole year round. It felt like the Old South—the Georgia of Stone Mountain, of systemic voter suppression, of good ole boys making campaign advertisements featuring pointing shotguns at people—was receding and a new vanguard, a new Georgia, was being ushered in. It was thrilling. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

But there was setback after setback, from Jason Carter (Jimmy’s grandson) getting smoked in his race for governor in 2014 to Michelle Nunn’s (Sam’s daughter) loss to David Perdue for the Senate that same…