Franklin County, GA
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  Franklin County, GA
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SingingAnalyst
mathstatman
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« on: July 11, 2018, 04:53:28 PM »
« edited: July 11, 2018, 05:02:41 PM by mathstatman »

Franklin County, GA has had a century of wild swings.

In 1912 an unusually (to me) high 35.1% voted for Taft, who received only 27% nationwide. Four years later, Hughes got only 11.5% to Wilson's 86%.

After the county voted strong D in 1920 and 1924, Hoover won the county in 1928 with 51%. Four years later, Hoover received just 5.3% to 93.2% FDR.

FDR's percentage edged down to 80.8% in 1944, but by 1952 Stevenson won the county with 88.6%, and in 1956, he won it with 92.2%. (In 1948, Thurmond barely reached 10% here).

In 1960, JFK carried the county with 91.2% (unlike 1928, being Catholic apparently wasn't a problem). Four years later, LBJ won the county with 76.1% (supporting the CRA apparently wasn't a big problem either).

Wallace won in 1968 with 64.5%, and Carter in 1976 with 85.9%. Only 0.9% voted third party in 1980, perhaps one of the lowest percentages in the US.

Franklin is one of the few Clinton '92 - Dole '96 counties. Since 1996 the Dem percentage has been steadily declining, with Clinton in 2016 receiving a record low 14.5% (compared with 17.7% for McGovern in 1972).  The county in 2010 was 87.3% white and 8.4% Black.

What explains these swings? Civil rights? Religion? Economic conditions? All of the above? Does the county resemble a South Carolina county in some ways, given its location in the NE part of GA?
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Adam Griffin
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« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2018, 06:18:45 PM »
« Edited: July 11, 2018, 06:22:31 PM by Fmr. Pres. Griff »

I will point out (while only somewhat related to this) that in 1964, the CRA obviously wasn't as big of an issue in North Georgia as it was in the rest of the state. By then, the non-white population of these areas was negligible at best (though Franklin closely borders the area where significant black population began in NE GA; Elbert/Hart).

Furthermore, major construction of both I-75 & I-85 begin a couple of years prior. This might not be particularly as relevant to the I-85 corridor seeing as how Democratic this area was both in 1960 and 1964 (and major construction on I-85 in that part of the state didn't get underway really until '61), but I'm convinced it had a huge impact on the I-75 corridor of LBJ counties in NW GA (which were among some of the most naturally GOP counties in the state then).



But also, it's worth noting that there were just some really weird voting habits of GA counties - particularly between 1960-1980. My own county (Whitfield; in that corridor of NW GA LBJ counties) was Nixon/LBJ/Nixon (and was the only county in GA to vote for Nixon all 3 times). I think GA having smaller counties in terms of geography also helped play a role in some of the wilder swings we see throughout history; smaller swings at the state and national level would be more likely to be detected in smaller jurisdictions perhaps.
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