If you want to understand how Georgia turned blue for the first time in nearly thirty years, you have to look at the numbers coming out of Marietta, Smyrna, and Kennesaw. Seriously. Cobb County used to be the beating heart of the Georgia GOP—the home of Newt Gingrich and a long line of conservative heavyweights. But when the dust settled on the Cobb County 2020 election results, it wasn't just a narrow win for the Democrats. It was a massive, unmistakable shift that basically changed the map of the South.
Joe Biden didn't just win here; he dominated. He cleared 221,846 votes in the county, leaving Donald Trump with 165,459. That’s a gap of more than 56,000 votes. In a state where the final margin was only about 11,779 votes across all 159 counties, you can see why Cobb was the "big kahuna" for the Biden campaign.
The turnout was also kind of insane. We're talking about 73.76% of registered voters showing up. That is 396,551 people who cast a ballot. It’s hard to overstate how much of a logistical headache that was for the local election board, especially with the pandemic still in full swing.
The Numbers That Defined the Night
Let’s look at the raw data for the presidential race. Joe Biden pulled in 56.34% of the vote. Donald Trump took 42.02%. Libertarian Jo Jorgensen picked up about 1.64%, which is roughly 6,441 votes.
It wasn't just the top of the ticket, though. The down-ballot races showed that this wasn't some fluke or "anti-Trump" protest alone. In the Senate race, Jon Ossoff beat David Perdue in Cobb with 210,851 votes to Perdue's 169,658. Raphael Warnock also performed incredibly well in the special election jungle primary, setting the stage for the runoffs that would eventually hand control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.
Honestly, the local races were just as telling. Lisa Cupid made history by becoming the first Black person and the first woman to be elected as the Cobb County Commission Chair. She defeated the Republican incumbent, Mike Boyce, by a comfortable margin. This essentially cemented Democratic control over the county government, a shift that felt unthinkable back in the 90s.
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Why the Shift Happened
People keep asking: "Was it the demographics or just the candidate?" The answer is basically both. Cobb has been getting more diverse for decades. The "northern arc" of Atlanta has seen a massive influx of younger, college-educated professionals and people of color.
In 2012, Mitt Romney won Cobb by 12 points.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton actually won it by about 2 points.
By 2020, Biden blew the doors off with a 14-point victory.
It was a total collapse for the GOP in the suburbs. White, college-educated voters who used to be the Republican base simply moved away from the party. You've also got the "Stacey Abrams effect"—massive grassroots mobilization that focused on getting non-white voters to the polls in numbers we've never seen before.
The Audit and the "Stop the Steal" Drama
Because the Cobb County 2020 election results were so pivotal, they became a lightning rod for controversy. After the initial count, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a full manual hand count of all 5 million ballots cast statewide. This was the largest hand tally in U.S. history.
In Cobb, the audit actually increased Biden's lead.
The hand count found that Biden gained an additional 315 votes.
While some counties found batches of uncounted ballots (like Floyd and Fayette), Cobb’s machine count held up remarkably well.
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The Carter Center sent monitors to oversee the process. Their report noted that the audit was generally well-executed, despite the immense pressure from the Trump campaign and various legal challenges. Even after a second machine recount requested by the Trump team, the results were certified. Biden won. Period.
Breaking Down the Voting Methods
One of the weirdest parts of the 2020 cycle was how people actually voted. Because of COVID-19, the traditional "show up at the precinct on Tuesday" vibe was totally gone.
- Absentee by Mail: 149,911 ballots.
- Advanced In-Person (Early Voting): 174,979 ballots.
- Election Day: Only 71,117 people waited until the actual Tuesday to vote.
If you look at those numbers, more people voted early in-person than on Election Day itself. The "Red Mirage" was very real here—Trump led early on election night because those Election Day votes (which leaned Republican) were reported first. But as the mail-in and early ballots were processed, the lead flipped dramatically.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s this persistent myth that the "inner city" of Atlanta won the state for Biden. That’s just not true. Atlanta (Fulton County) has been blue forever. Biden won Georgia because of the suburbs.
If you take the Cobb County 2020 election results and pair them with Gwinnett and Henry counties, you see the real story. These are the places that used to be deep red and are now deep blue. Republicans didn't lose Georgia in the city; they lost it in the cul-de-sacs.
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Local Impact and Future Implications
The shift in Cobb has had real-world consequences for local policy. We’ve seen a bigger push for public transit (the MSPLOST transit tax was a huge talking point), changes in how the jail is run, and a different approach to zoning and development.
The GOP is trying to fight back, of course. They’ve been focusing heavily on "quality of life" issues and trying to win back those suburban moms who walked away in 2020. But with the county becoming more urban and diverse every year, the math is getting harder for them.
Actionable Insights for Following Georgia Politics
If you're trying to keep an eye on where Georgia is heading in the next few cycles, here is what you should do:
- Watch the Margin in North Cobb: Areas like Acworth and Harrison are the last GOP strongholds in the county. If those start to thin out, the county is gone for Republicans for a generation.
- Check the "Drop-Off": Look at how many people vote for the President but skip the local Commission or School Board races. This tells you if the shift is about the specific candidate or a broader party brand.
- Monitor Voter Registration: The Georgia Secretary of State's office publishes monthly data on new registrations. Cobb is consistently one of the fastest-growing voter rolls in the state.
- Follow the Money: Look at where the national PACs are spending. In 2020, they flooded Cobb with ad money because they knew it was the "tipping point" county.
Cobb isn't a "swing" county anymore. It’s a blue anchor. Whether that’s a permanent change or a temporary reaction to the 2020 political climate is the million-dollar question for the next few years. For now, the 2020 results remain the definitive proof that the political "Gold Coast" of the Georgia GOP has officially moved elsewhere.