If last Tuesday’s election was more a Republican wave than a tsunami nationally, it sure as heck was the latter in Georgia. Both Republican U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal won convincingly, Democrat Congressman John Barrow of Augusta was handily vanquished (despite some onlookers saying he would survive as the last white Democrat in the Deep South) and down-ballot Republicans cruised to re-election. In the case of Richard Woods, the GOP state school superintendent nominee who many folks expected to get a strong run for his money won by the largest margin he’s ever posted in a campaign.
The Georgia Republican Party, too, made strides, investing in building an infrastructure for long-term field work and voter outreach. Save one profile by The Washington Post, much of it flew under the radar. Considerably more attention is being given to moves made by Georgia Democrats eager for revival.
Speaking of their bench, it now appears remarkably lacking. It is not so much that both Democrat Senate candidate Michelle Nunn and gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter lost, but the fact that they underperformed the expectations of many. A lot of people, myself included, speculated that Carter’s launching a 2014 bid for governor carried a secondary aim of leaving him the party’s de facto frontrunner for governor in 2018. Had he over-performed, or at least met expectations and still lost, it would have been one thing. Now, however, most would probably concede it is something else.
As for Nunn, we have no indication as to whether or not she intends to make another foray into electoral politics. What we can assess is that had she run Perdue to the wire and come up short, and were GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson planning to retire, she could mount a 2016 Senate bid with a claim to electability. Given Tuesday’s results and Isakson gearing up to run, neither appear to be the case.
It leaves Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams as Democrat leaders in elected office who were undamaged by defeat this year. Indeed, sniping has already ensued between them and Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman DuBose Porter regarding the party’s tactics and investments in the cycle.
The bottom line: Georgia Democrats are facing more internal strife than they would ever care to admit. The party’s vaunted statewide recruits were defeated, as was Barrow. Rather than revival, they are left with disappointment and internal squabbles, and we are not yet a week removed from Election Day.
Turning back to Georgia Republicans, they should take nothing for granted and build on the strides made in 2014. For example, they made sure the Democrats were shut out of any new seats in the General Assembly, even in southwest Georgia districts with black majorities. They need to continue raising the money for a repeat of that in 2016.
Whether or not Georgia will again have “battleground” status in 2016 remains to be seen, but what is clear is that Republicans have no reason to take their feet off the gas now.
