Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
This county, the state’s most populous with more than 1.5 million inhabitants, is coterminous with the city of Philadelphia. Residents cast about 750,000 votes in the election, favouring Biden over Trump by 81%-18%. It was 30,000 pro-Biden votes from the county, declared at about 9am on Friday, that overturned Trump’s state-wide lead, which on Tuesday night had looked impregnable.
The shift, potentially worth 20 electoral college votes, added vital momentum to the Democratic candidate’s push for the White House. The county is at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement – it is about 43% African American and 45% white. Supporters were involved in protests against the police killings of George Floyd in Minnesota and a local man, Walter Wallace, who was shot in October.
Trump repeatedly dismissed nationwide BLM protests, insulted and mocked demonstrators, and sent troops to suppress them. Now they paid him back. Exit polls show African-Americans in Pennsylvania, representing 8% of all voters, backed Biden by 92%-6%. The Hispanic/Latino community, 4% of all voters, backed him by 78%-18%. Although the two minorities’ total numbers were relatively small, so was Biden’s margin of victory.
Clayton County, Georgia
Located in the greater Atlanta area, this county forms part of the 5th Congressional District, which was represented from 1987, until his death in July, by the Democratic congressman, John Lewis, the renowned civil rights leader.
Fulton and DeKalb counties also belong to the 5th District, which is majority African-American and comprises almost three-quarters of the city of Atlanta, Georgia’s largest.
Three former presidents, Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama, attended Lewis’s funeral, where Obama delivered a powerful eulogy. But Trump snubbed the event and was slow to pay tribute, appearing to ignore or dismiss Lewis’s contribution to racial justice.
It’s fair to say his absence caused great offence, and not only among African-Americans. Those voters may have gained their revenge last week. Early on Friday, 917 votes from Clayton gave Biden a state-wide lead for the first time. Overall, Clayton county backed Biden by 85% to 14% for Trump. DeKalb followed suit, by 83% to 15%. Exit polls showed that black people in Georgia, comprising 30% of the population, backed Biden by 87% to 11%. Last week, Democrat Nikema Williams was elected for the 5th District.
Maricopa County, Arizona
Trump’s vendetta against John McCain, the popular Republican senator from Arizona, infuriated many people in the state. McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who died in 2018, was a favourite son unafraid to criticise the president. In return, Trump repeatedly insulted him.
Partly as a result, another local hero, the former astronaut and Democrat, Mark Kelly, will now fill McCain’s Senate seat after emerging victorious last week. Kelly’s wife is the former Democratic congresswoman, Gabby Giffords, who was shot in 2011. Giffords represented the 8th Congressional District, centred on Maricopa County. Maricopa, with 62% of the state’s population, is home to Phoenix, the state capital. In short, Maricopa is vital for any presidential candidate who wants to win Arizona.
Yet Trump managed to alienate county residents to the extent that they voted last week for a Democratic senator and for Joe Biden by 51% to 47% – more than enough to flip the state. At least 1,912,000 Maricopa voters turned against Trump, including Hispanic/Latinos by about 2 to 1. About 47% of white voters went for Biden. It was a remarkable turnaround in a once-famed Republican stronghold – and very much a Trump own goal.
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