The Political Power Landscape: Race

Racial Demographics on the Georgia Ballot

To this day, race is one of the most relevant components of both the voting and redistricting processes.

82% of candidates are white. In the U.S., the percentage of people of color running for office lags far behind their share of the population. It’s not enough for non-white candidates to simply run; to achieve any sort of proportional representation, racially diverse candidates must be prepared to win.

Georgia is one of only a few states, primarily in the south, that ask for voters to identify their race. While the benefit of this is access to accurate voting data based on racial demographics, it ultimately represents a historic struggle to separate public policy from race altogether.

A Look At The Numbers

Of Georgia’s 94 governor and lieutenant governor seats, 84 are occupied by white officials. Non-white politicians occupy only 5.3% of these seats, and a breakdown of that percentage reveals that each racial demographic is severely underrepresented based on their percentage of the population (for example, 0% of these seats are held by Native Americans).State legislature representation is only slightly better, with non-white representatives occupying 12.1% of Georgia, 7,382 available seats.

The GA Voting Shift

Addressing the Party Divide

Since 2004, Georgia has experienced a gradual demographic shift in which the proportion of white voters has dropped (from 68.7% in 2004 to 52.7% today) and the proportion of voters of color has climbed (from 29.8% in 2004 to 38.3% today). Because of a pattern of racially polarized voting in Georgia elections, in which voters of color vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates and a sizable majority of white voters vote for Republican candidates, Georgia has shifted from a Republican-dominated state to a competitive state. This represents an opportunity to separate the vote from party affiliations and focus civic efforts on achieving equal representation.

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