Georgia, with its heavily
African American population, gave Barack Obama one of his largest victories in a primary during the course of the Democratic Presidential Primary as he solidly defeated Hillary Clinton by more than a two-to-one margin of victory. According to exit polls, 51 percent of voters in the Georgia Democratic Primary were African Americans and they opted for Obama by a margin of 88-11 compared to the 43 percent of
Caucasian voters who backed Clinton by a margin of 53-43. Obama won all age groups, educational attainment levels and socioeconomic classes in Georgia except senior citizens aged 65 and over who backed Clinton by a margin of 55-45. Obama won all ideological groups and self-identified Democrats by a margin of 67-32 and
Independents by a similar 63-33 percent margin of victory. Obama also swept every major religious denomination –
Protestants went for Obama 52-46;
Roman Catholics 56-44; other Christians 77-22; other religions 71-24; and
atheists/
agnostics 69-30. Obama performed extremely well throughout the state of Georgia and won over three-quarters of its counties. He performed best in
Atlanta where he won 76 percent of the vote as well as its suburbs which backed him 66-32.
Central Georgia also strongly favored Obama by a margin of 69-31. Obama did best in the state’s major
urban areas like
Atlanta,
Savannah,
Columbus,
Augusta, and
Athens as well as a majority of the
rural counties that were predominantly African American. Clinton performed extremely well in
North Georgia, mostly in the more
rural, white and
conservative parts of the state which are considered to be an extreme part of
Appalachia, a region where she consistently did well during the course of the primaries; she defeated Obama by a margin of 48-45 percent in North Georgia. Obama received a major endorsement from
U.S. Representative John Lewis of Atlanta, a former civil rights activist. == See also ==