AJC: “Before the final voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Ossoff had already earned 1.77 million early and absentee votes, more than Mike Collins’s 1.71 million votes in the entire election.”
Atlanta, Ga. — The Atlanta Journal Constitution is out with new election data analysis on Sen. Jon Ossoff’s “landslide victory,” reporting that he “didn’t just clear that bar. He obliterated it.”
The AJC’s analysis found that Ossoff “ran ahead of Kamala Harris in every Georgia county,” with gains that “stretched into territory Democrats have struggled to crack for years — and may not again anytime soon.” It details how Ossoff “flipped a dozen counties that backed Trump two years earlier,” earning the support of about two-thirds of independent voters and 39% of white voters.
This analysis comes on the heels of recent reporting from the New York Times saying that Sen. Ossoff “laid the foundation to win a second term during his first,” including through “robust constituent services” and “fund-raising prowess.” It also follows reporting from the AJC following Tuesday’s results on Sen. Ossoff’s “calculated moves that helped transform his fight for political survival into a commanding victory” – a victory that was “anything but inevitable.” The reporting details how the Senator “helped engineer an overhaul of the state Democratic Party, built a formidable campaign account and invested millions in a statewide political operation.”
Recently, the AJC also highlighted high youth turnout during the Early Vote period in Georgia, with Black and young voters “heading to the polls at a significantly faster clip than during the last midterm election” — contributing to Tuesday’s historic and decisive victories for Democrats up and down the ballot in the state.
AJC: Behind the collapse of the Republican coalition in Georgia
By Greg Bluestein, Stephanie Lamm and Charles Minshew | November 6, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff improved on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ 2024 performance in all 159 counties, including areas where Republicans still won comfortably.
- The most dramatic shift came in Whitfield County, a northwest Georgia Republican stronghold that Trump carried by 44 points in 2024 — but that U.S. Rep. Mike Collins won by only 13 points, a staggering 31-point swing.
- Ossoff flipped a dozen counties that backed Trump two years earlier, including Lowndes County in South Georgia, where the Democrat won the endorsement of Valdosta’s GOP mayor.
- The gains stretched into territory Democrats have struggled to crack for years — and may not again anytime soon. Trump carried Spalding County by roughly 17 points in 2024. Ossoff won it by 3 points Tuesday.
- Bottoms tallied nearly 200,000 fewer votes than Ossoff but still defeated Jackson by nearly 9 percentage points. And she, too, captured territory where Republicans long held the upper hand.
- Bottoms and Ossoff both won Fayette County, an affluent suburb south of Atlanta that Democrats have long wanted to turn into a battleground.
- And they threatened to flip Paulding County northwest of Atlanta, which Trump carried with nearly 62% of the vote in 2024.
- At one stop after another, Trump told supporters to “pretend” he was on the ballot. Voters appeared to take him at his word.
- About six in 10 Georgia Senate voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Roughly nine in 10 of those voters backed Ossoff.
- The economy was another source of dissatisfaction. About three-quarters of Georgia Senate voters rated the nation’s economy negatively, and Ossoff overwhelmingly carried those who described it as poor. […]
- About two-thirds of independent voters supported Ossoff over Collins, according to ABC News Voter Polls, and Bottoms carried the group by roughly 10 percentage points. […]
- Ossoff won 39% of white voters, compared with the 29% who backed fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in his 2022 victory, according to the ABC survey.
- That blew past the white-voter benchmark in Georgia Democrats’ long-standing “30-30 rule.” The political rule of thumb holds that Democrats can win statewide by capturing at least 30% of white voters while Black voters make up roughly 30% of the electorate.
- Ossoff didn’t just clear that bar. He obliterated it.
- Before the final voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Ossoff had already earned 1.77 million early and absentee votes, more than Mike Collins’s 1.71 million votes in the entire election.
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