Trump wins Georgia, flipping back a key battleground state

Former President Donald Trump has won Georgia, NBC News projects, notching a victory in a key battleground state that his campaign focused on as a must-win after he narrowly lost it in 2020.

It’s a major win for Republicans who had sought to restore the state’s longtime status as a Republican stronghold following Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020 — as well as runoff wins by Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the months afterward.

And it marks a turnaround since Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in Georgia four years ago — when he urged Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,782 votes necessary for him to win the state — became the foundation of a criminal racketeering indictment filed against him in Fulton County last year. That case is still ongoing.

Trump’s Georgia win over Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t clinch a path back to the White House, but it does put him in position for a return if he can flip several other swing states Biden won four years ago. Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Trump carried it in 2016.

Trump’s campaign sought to beat back Democratic gains in metro Atlanta while also maximizing turnout in smaller, rural areas. It was buoyed by an energized and loyal base of Republican county chairs and elected officials, who put on a steady drumbeat of campaign events long before Trump ramped up his activity in the state.

Trump visited Georgia six times this year, holding rallies in Rome, Savannah and Atlanta.

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The campaign also worked to peel Black supporters, particularly men, away from the Democratic Party. Trump attended a Black Business Leaders Roundtable in August intended to boost his appeal among the group.

While the NBC News Exit Poll didn't show Trump making significant gains among Black voters, the results early Wednesday found him making moderate inroads among Hispanic voters in the state — a much smaller share of the electorate but one that appears to have shifted toward Trump across many key states.

Trump also enjoyed the support of popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who began appearing with him toward the end of the election cycle after having distancing himself from Trump amid his criticisms of the state election process. Kemp endorsed Trump in a Fox News interview in August.

Trump had backed a primary challenger against Kemp in 2022, part of a revenge tour against Republicans who didn’t aid his efforts to overturn the election, but Kemp won renomination and re-election.

It’s part of Trump’s tortured history with the state. Some Republicans also blame his falsehoods about the results of the 2020 election for creating a Republican turnout dip in subsequent elections, including the 2020 runoffs that flipped the Senate to Democrats and the 2022 midterm Senate race in which Warnock won a full term over Trump-backed Herschel Walker.

Unlike four years ago, when exit polls showed Biden winning independents by 53% to 44% in Georgia, Trump appears to be winning independent voters this time, according to the latest data early Wednesday.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com