Friday August 29th, 2025 5:33PM

2004: The Year Georgia Became Republican

By Gordon Sawyer 8/3/04
It seems to me the historic evolution of Georgia political parties is becoming more and more clear. Go back no farther than 1992 and you will find a Georgia that had one dominant political party, the Democrats. It had been that way for more than a century. Those in Georgia usually pointed with pride that they were not liberal like the national Democrats; they were, they said, Southern Democrats.

But as the national Democratic Party became more and more liberal, Georgia's old-line Democrats began to say they were really not party loyalists at all, they were "independents." Many began to say openly that they had not left the Democratic Party; it had left them. We began to see Republicans elected to office. But it wasn't until the last election that we got around to electing a Republican governor. A few former Democrats changed parties, and the Senate became Republican. But the fact was, even two years ago, the old-guard Democrat structure made it practically impossible for the Republicans to carry out new political proposals in the legislature.

But several things have happened recently that indicate this may be the historic turning point ... the point at which Georgia truly becomes a majority Republican state. First, in the primary election the other day, for the first time since Reconstruction, more Georgians took the blue ticket and voted in the Republican primary than took the white ticket to vote Democrat. The numbers? 641,663 Republican. 616,037 Democrat.

And at the national level, the Democrats have nominated two of America's most liberal Senators. The ADA rates John Kerry at 92 out of 100 in liberal voting, and John Edwards at 88. By comparison, Ted Kennedy is 90. Max Cleland was 83, and Georgia voted him out of office. Sam Nunn, by comparison, was rated at 37. And if you want to know what this means to Georgia politics, read Zell Miller's book.

History has its turning points, and we often miss them when they are happening. But it seems to me we are - in this year 2004 -- watching the point at which Georgia remained conservative, but switched its political party loyalty from Democrat to Republican.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
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