ATLANTA — Georgia voters delivered a historic win for former president Donald Trump and helped carry him to a projected second term in the White House.
Trump Georgia election results
The state was called for Mr. Trump in the overnight hours of Election Day. As of Wednesday evening, he was on track to a roughly 114,000-vote victory in Georgia-- a margin of about 2%. Check out the interactive county-by-county map below.
It's a reversal of fortune for him following a 2020 race when his narrow loss in Georgia helped propel his opponent, Joe Biden, to the presidency.
Two political experts, one Republican and one Democrat, help explain how Georgia flipped from blue to red in this election.
Spiro Amburn, a Republican strategist, called the result a "validation" of GOP principles.
While Falak Sabbak, a Democratic strategist, said the outcome was "remarkable."
"And shocking," Sabbak continued. "We had gone in thinking it was going to be a much closer horse race than it really turned out to be."
Amburn pointed to voter turnout as a decisive factor in Mr. Trump's Georgia victory.
"Donald Trump expanded those margins in rural counties, and he shaved Joe Biden's margins from 2020," said Amburn.
The political strategist argued the race ultimately turned on two key issues: "the economy and public safety."
Meanwhile, Democrats now begin the process of trying to make sense of a stinging loss in a state they hoped to carry.
Sabbak cautioned that in the immediate aftermath of an electoral defeat, it's too early to point to a singular tipping point.
"It's not just one factor that's going to get you to 50%," she said. "You have to have a bunch of different variables."
However, Sabbak questioned whether, in retrospect, Democrats may have over-emphasized the issue of abortion access at the expense of other voter concerns.
"We knew that women were going to come out in full force," said Sabbak. "I think just hitting them with just the abortion talking point might have not gotten them to where we needed them to be, which was to vote for us."
For Republicans, attention now turns to Inauguration Day and what follows.
"Trump has to govern," said Amburn. "I think he has a golden opportunity."