The Democratic Ballot Will Look Like Georgia. The Republican Ballot….Not So Much.

Even with four positions without an anticipated nominee, it’s safe to say the Democratic ticket will be more representative of Georgia than the Republicans.

By quite a margin.

I’m not making a judgement in any way about this, just providing the information.

Every Republican nominee will be white and nine will be men.

Democrats will nominate five women and if Otha Thornton wins, three African Americans and one Jewish candidate.

Georgia is 61% white and 32% black–almost the exact Democratic ticket. 

Fifty-one percent of Georgia is female so both parties fall way short of the mark there.

The average is tricky for a couple reasons. The ages weren’t easy to find for many candidates so I had to guess based on information such as college graduation and length of marriage.

For Republicans I went below what would be expected and the average age of the Georgia Republican nominees is 51.9.

Now I calculated that and then realized I forgot to include unopposed candidates. And the two youngest candidates on the Republican ticket (Geoff Duncan and David Belle Isle, both of whom are substantially younger than the ticket) came in second for the runoff. I’d expect that average age to shoot way up.

For Democrats the same thing happened except I went older than expected. The average age of Democrats is currently 47.7 but Fredd Swann and Charlie Bailey were unopposed and young so that number will decrease a bit.

I can’t easily find average age information but from a quick Google, the median age of Georgia is ~37 and most of the state is under 45. Making an educated guess: the Democratic ticket is much closer to the average Georgian’s age than the Republican.

Republicans continue to dominate in Georgia so they’ve got a winning strategy. If the looming demographic shifts are ever going to impact elections, Republicans will be unable to put forth a representative ticket.