A Democratic Pickup in the 6th? Maybe Not So Much

Not long after the news began to spread Monday evening that 6th District Rep. Tom Price was going to be President Elect Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, speculation began over whether there would be an opportunity for Democrats to gain another seat. After all, Trump had lost Cobb County. Even Nate Cohn, editor of the New York Times Upshot section got into the act:

Well, not so fast. Just in time to answer that question comes the Daily Kos with a spreadsheet analysis of the presidential election results by House district. And while Trump won the 6th district by the smallest margin of any of the GOP districts. Yet in 2012, Mitt Romney took the district 61% to 37%. The Daily Kos analysis of the district called it “the type of very well-educated suburban seat where Trump was a poor fit.”

While Trump got 55% of the vote in the 6th district portion of Cobb, Price got 67%. In the part of Fulton County in the 6th, Trump got 49% of the vote, while Price got 62^%. And in the 6th district portion of DeKalb County, Trump earned 38% of the vote, while Prige got 52%. Of course, whoever runs for Price’s seat won’t have the advantages of a long time incumbent, but it’s also a mistake to look at how Trump fared in the district and apply that to the upcoming special election.

The Trump vote in the remaining 13 congressional districts is below the fold. As you might expect Trump did best in Northeast Georgia’s 9th district, followed closely by Northwest Georgia’s 14th. The ten GOP held seats gave their votes to Trump, while the for Democratic seats went to Hillary Clinton. It’s also worth noting that despite southwest Georgia being the strongest area for Trump in the primary, he couldn’t overcome the Democratic dominance of the area in November.