ATLANTA — More Democrats than Republicans turned out to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, flipping the outcome in the midterm primary election of four years ago when the GOP dominated.
The strong showing could be a singular incident, or a trend that endures to the November general election and the head-to-head contests between the two parties.
Democratic turnout in this year’s governor’s race was up by half from the 2022 primary, while Republican turnout fell by a quarter.
Granted, four years ago, Stacey Abrams had no Democratic challengers for governor, so her supporters had one less reason to turn out, perhaps suppressing Democratic numbers.
But this year U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff had no Democratic challengers, yet turnout for him increased by more than 40% compared to the Senate race in 2022 when fellow Democrat, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, had a challenger. GOP turnout fell by nearly a quarter this year in that race, too.
The proportions were similar across the board in statewide races, no matter how far down the ballot one looked. In the contest for attorney general, Democratic turnout was up by more than 350,000 while Republican turnout fell by more than 280,000.
“It’s not a good sign for Republicans,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.
The outcome in Georgia tracked national sentiment, she said.
Costs are rising. The country is in a conflict with Iran. President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are sagging.
However, she said, polling shows the state still has more Republican than Democratic voters.
“So Democrats still have to work hard, and harder, to be able to win even under favorable national conditions,” she said.
On Tuesday evening, Trey Conley, 37, exited the Dianne Wright Innovation Center in Hiram and rejoined his 15-year-old daughter, Mattison, who had been waiting for him to vote.
Conley said he selected Jason Esteves among the seven Democrats running for governor. He picked Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, for lieutenant governor.
The outcome at that polling place skewed 2-to-1 for President Donald Trump two years ago, and Conley said most of his family votes Republican.
But he said he and his wife share many of the same ideals and voted the same way: for Democrats.
“We’re trying to flip the state one person at a time,” he said.
The next day, Democrats were celebrating. Their party had drawn 1.1 million voters to the polls, about 53% of all votes cast. Republicans, by comparison, had drawn about 940,000, or just over 45%.
“Georgians overwhelmingly voted for Democrats Tuesday night, sending Republicans, billionaires, special interests, and massive corporations a clear message: Georgians won’t let you push them around anymore,” the state Senate Democrats said in a statement.
Although the turnout on Tuesday favored Democrats, it was only a primary election, a time when more committed voters typically show up at the polls. Although nearly 2.1 million made the trip, that is just 28.1% of active voters.
Meanwhile, the GOP saw an upside in the decisive victory by former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms near the top of the ticket. She won 56% of the vote in the Democratic contest for governor, a strong showing that propelled her to the general election as the party nominee.
“Keisha Lance Bottoms is a defund-the-police lunatic who did her best to destroy Atlanta, then took that same failed agenda to the Biden-Harris White House,” a regional spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee said in a statement on Wednesday. “Georgians don’t want another far-left politician who puts criminals, illegals, and the radical left first, and they’ll reject her in November.”
Republicans think Bottoms’ name atop the ticket may cause some Democrats to stay home in November.
On Tuesday afternoon, Chris Heller went to his polling place in Atlanta’s Ormewood Park neighborhood, which skews Democratic. Like Conley would do later in the day in Hiram, Heller voted for Esteves for governor.
Heller, who had his 6-year-old daughter, Lucy, with him, said he liked Esteves’ “progressive mindset.”
Heller’s outlook could pose a challenge for the Democratic Party as it tries to draw voters back to the polls in November.
Heller does not identify as a Democrat. He called the party “pathetic,” although he added that he could not remember ever voting for a Republican. And he said part of his vote for Esteves was grounded in the reality of voter turnout in November.
“I’m not convinced that Keisha Lance Bottoms is going to be able to pull enough votes to get us back into the blue,” he said.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat, an initiative of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
This article appears in 2026 Elections: Candidate lists, news.
