(The Center Square) – Going into Election Day, the majority of voters in every swing state said that the economy was their top issue.
Those concerns seemed to play out in Georgia, where 73% of voters who voted for former President Donald Trump said the economy was the “most important issue” for them. Only 25% of Vice President Kamala Harris’ voters said the same thing.
This is according to exit polling conducted by CNN.
Dr. Trey Hood, University of Georgia professor of political science and director of the Survey Research Center, told The Center Square that there was a definite correlation between voters’ concern about the economy and President-elect Donald Trump’s win.
“Voters were telling us … that the No. 1 issue was the economy,” Hood said. “I guess enough voters were not satisfied with what was going on in the Biden administration and wanted a change.”
Trump won Georgia 50.73%-48.53%.
Voters consistently told pollsters leading up to the election that they trusted Trump to handle the economy better than Harris, and it seems that his “America First” economic policies resonated with voters in the Peach State.
The exit poll found that 73% of the 4,398 voters polled said they believed the economy was either “poor” or “not so good.”
Yet, it seems that Harris voters were much less generally concerned with issues like the economy, while also being happy about the direction of the country.
Harris voters consistently said that they were “enthusiastic” about the direction of the country and 90% said they believed the condition of the economy was “good.”
While the economy was definitely the deciding issue for Trump voters, rural voters and an increase in enthusiasm in Trump’s campaign also helped push him across the finish line.
Hood said Trump’s ability to increase the rural vote was pivotal for Trump.
According to information from the state’s Election Data Hub, which was updated periodically every day throughout early voting, rural counties like Towns, Oconee and Rabun had the highest percentage of voters casting their ballots early.
“He really drove up margins in rural counties, and he did better in some of the larger urban counties,” Hood said. “The rural realignment that has been going on, not only in Georgia but across the South, is a couple of decades long.
“So, it’s not a surprise, but he was able to even increase his vote share in rural areas over what it had been in 2020 or 2016.”
Hood said there seemed to be a general lack of enthusiasm around the Harris campaign.
“For some people, she just didn’t motivate or activate them,” he said.
The enthusiasm around the Trump campaign becomes clear with the number of first-time voters that Trump received.
According to the CNN exit poll, 52% of Trump voters said they were voting for the first time, compared to only 47% of Harris’ voters. Trump voters were also more likely to say they were voting for their candidate, while the majority of Harris voters said they were voting not for Harris, but against Trump.
By Elyse Apel | The Center Square
Elyse Apel is an apprentice reporter with The Center Square, covering Georgia and North Carolina. She is a 2024 graduate of Hillsdale College.
