Hillary Clinton isn’t just trying to win the White House. Clinton wants to break the Republican South, and her plan starts with a serious push to win Georgia in 2016.
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STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, President Clinton called that a smearing reference to your wins in the south. And your supporter, Congressman Gregory Meeks, said it was demeaning to black voters. Is that how you took it?
CLINTON: I don’t know what he was talking about, because last time I looked at a map of the United States, the South was a part of our country, like every other region. And I’m thrilled to have support — you know, when you win Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, those are all states that we can put into play in the general election.
When you win Massachusetts and Ohio and Illinois and Missouri and Texas and Arizona and Nevada and a lot of other places from the north to the south from the east to the west, that illustrates how far ahead of him and why, because I value every voter. I’m not writing any individual, and I’m certainly not writing off any state or region of our country. That’s why I have two to 3.4 million votes more than he does; and, by the way, 1.4 million more than Donald Trump, because I want to be the president for all of America.
And I particularly want to support Democrats in states that have been voting against Democratic candidates for awhile now to rebuild the Democratic Party. We’re going to try to make Georgia competitive, and we’re going to fight hard in North Carolina and Virginia and Florida.
Hillary Clinton has a goal in mind that should keep Republicans up awake at night. Clinton wants to break one of the last geographic Republican strongholds in the United States. If Clinton could win North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Georgia, she would cut into the heart of the GOP’s base of support.
Could Clinton make Georgia competitive in 2016? The state’s minority population is growing rapidly. In the last decade, Georgia’s minority population has gone from 37%-44%. Eighty-one percent of the state’s population growth has come from minorities. Blacks and Hispanics account for Georgia’s population growth, and those two groups of voters are why the Clinton campaign seems to be gearing up to make a serious push to win Georgia.
Southern Democratic voters have been looked down upon especially by Northern and Western progressives as the country has become more partisan, but these Democrats are laying the groundwork for a titanic political shift that may as soon as November see a formerly solidly red state like Georgia turn blue.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
