2012 United States presidential election in Georgia
Updated: Wikipedia source
The 2012 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Georgia voters chose 16 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Romney won Georgia by a 7 % margin, an improvement from 2008 when John McCain won by 5 %. Romney received 53 % of the vote to Obama's 45 %. Early County flipped from supporting the Republican candidate to the Democratic candidate, while Chattahoochee County flipped from the Democratic column to the Republican column. Obama is the only Democrat to ever win two terms without carrying the state at least once. Georgia is also one of only two states that voted against Obama in both 2008 and 2012 that his vice president Joe Biden would go on to win in 2020, the other being Arizona. As of 2024, this is the last time a Democratic presidential nominee won the rural Black Belt counties of Baker, Dooly, Early, Peach, Quitman, and Twiggs, and the last time that the suburban Atlanta counties of Gwinnett, Henry, and Cobb would vote Republican in a presidential race. This is also the last time that Georgia has backed the losing candidate in a presidential election and the last time a Democrat won the presidency without winning Georgia. Obama became the first Democratic president since Martin Van Buren to never win Georgia in two elections.