Former President Donald Trump won Georgia, NBC News projects, notching a victory in a key battleground state that his campaign focused on as a must-win after narrowly losing it in 2020.
It’s a major victory for Republicans who had sought to restore the state’s old status as a Republican stronghold after Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020 — as well as Democratic Sens. victories. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the months that followed.
And it marks a turnaround since Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in Georgia four years ago — when he urged Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,782 votes needed to win the state win – became the basis of a criminal racketeering indictment. filed against him last year in Fulton County. That case is still ongoing.
Trump’s victory in Georgia over Vice President Kamala Harris will not lead to a return to the White House, but it will position him for a return if he can flip several other swing states that Biden won four years ago. Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Trump carried it in 2016.
Trump’s campaign sought to pare Democratic gains in metro Atlanta while maximizing turnout in smaller, rural areas. It was backed by an energetic and loyal base of Republican county chairmen and elected officials, who mounted a steady series of campaign events long before Trump ramped up his activities in the state.
Trump visited Georgia six times this year and held rallies in Rome, Savannah and Atlanta.
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The campaign also caused black supporters, especially men, to break away from the Democratic Party. Trump attended a Black Business Leaders Roundtable in August aimed at broadening his appeal among the group.
While the NBC News Exit Poll did not show Trump making significant gains among black voters, results early Wednesday showed him making moderate gains among the state’s Hispanic voters — a much smaller share of the electorate, but a that seems to have shifted to Trump. in many major states.
Trump also enjoyed the support of popular Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who emerged with him toward the end of the election cycle after distancing himself from Trump amid his criticism of the state election process. Kemp endorsed Trump in a Fox News interview in August.
Trump had backed a primary challenger to Kemp in 2022, part of a revenge tour against Republicans who did not help his efforts to overturn the election, but Kemp won renomination and reelection.
It’s part of Trump’s tortured history with the state. Some Republicans also blame his falsehoods about the results of the 2020 election for creating a Republican turnout dip in subsequent elections, including the 2020 runoff that shifted the Senate to the Democrats and the 2022 midterm Senate race in which Warnock won a full term won over the Trump-backed election. Herschel Walker.
Unlike four years ago, when exit polls showed Biden winning independent voters in Georgia 53% to 44%, Trump appears to be winning independent voters this time, according to the latest data early Wednesday.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
