ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump's path back to the White House led through Georgia, with its 16 electoral votes. Both candidates held lots of campaign events in the state, but Trump won the state with more than 50% of the vote. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Sarah Kallis has been reviewing the results. Hi there.
SARAH KALLIS, BYLINE: Hi.
SHAPIRO: Four years ago, President Biden narrowly won Georgia by just over 11,000 votes. This week Trump flipped it. What changed?
KALLIS: So Trump's margin of victory was about 10 times greater than Biden's in 2020. And I caught up with state GOP chair Josh McKoon, and he said that they focused their ground game on turnout, especially with voters who didn't show up in 2020.
JOSH MCKOON: I think our success in getting these low-propensity voters to turn out in such large numbers really made a difference. They're hard to poll. They typically don't respond to surveys. And I think that's where you saw the difference.
KALLIS: Trump especially made gains in rural and exurban counties. And McKoon also said the party tried to prioritize issues they thought would resonate with voters.
SHAPIRO: And were those the same issues we've been hearing about across the country? What were they?
KALLIS: So the cost of living definitely stood out to me, especially the price of groceries and gas. Some people told me that the cost of essentials has just become too unmanageable. And we know that inflation has cooled recently, but people still seem nostalgic for lower prices during the Trump era.
SHAPIRO: It seems like most of the country shifted to the right in this election, but do people think Georgia actually remains a swing state, or was 2020 more of a fluke when Biden won?
KALLIS: So the state Republican Party certainly seems to think it was a fluke. Here's Chairman McKoon again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MCKOON = CHAIRMAN, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN PARTY: This state being flipped - well, it was a fluke. We're back.
KALLIS: So Senator Raphael Wornock, who's a Democrat, won the state in 2022. And when we're looking ahead to 2026, the gubernatorial race and Senate race are still likely to be competitive. But we're going to need to watch the next couple years since it's too early to make a prediction still.
SHAPIRO: I know on election night, you were at a watch party with Georgia Republicans in Atlanta. How did they react to Trump's win?
KALLIS: Yes, I was. I was at a watch party at a hotel ballroom in Buckhead, Atlanta, and voters were elated. They were celebrating throughout the night. In particular, Anthony Bennett is a voter who attended the watch party, and he described the night as exciting.
ANTHONY BENNETT: Trump's been through so much stuff, so much, you know - such great perseverance through all this. It's the greatest political movement in the history of America.
(APPLAUSE)
KALLIS: So you can hear some cheers as new results were coming in during the party.
SHAPIRO: And how are Democrats in the state feeling?
KALLIS: Well, they're definitely disappointed, to say the least, and I think we can see some introspection starting within the Democratic Party. My colleague attended an election night watch party hosted by the Divine Nine, which is a collection of historically Black fraternities and sororities. Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity member Kaibakai Haines thinks that the Harris-Walz campaign exposed the need for some critical conversations within the party.
KAIBAKAI HAINES: We can battle the misinformation that's out there, making sure that we're targeting Black men and let them to know what the policies are out there that can benefit us as a community collectively.
KALLIS: And so there was definitely incredible turnout in Georgia this year. We had about 5.2 million people who voted, and that's about 73% of active voters, according to Secretary of State data. And so there were definitely varied views on the outcome, but the record turnout is absolutely notable.
SHAPIRO: That is Georgia Public Broadcasting's Sarah Kallis. Thanks a lot.
KALLIS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAHALIA SONG, "CHEAT (FEAT JOJO)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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