10 days until vote
Saturday marks 10 days until Americans vote in federal and state races on Nov. 8. All year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has brought you the key moments in those races, and it will continue to cover the campaign's main events, examine the issues and analyze candidates' finance reports until the last ballot is counted. You can follow the developments on the AJC's politics page at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/georgia-politics/ and in the Political Insider blog at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/political-insider/. You can also track our coverage on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GAPoliticsNews or Facebook at https://facebook.com/gapoliticsnewsnow.
DISTRICT 145
Represented by state Rep. Rusty Kidd, independent from Milledgeville
Population: 54,068
Median income: $34,927
Median age: 35.4 years
Percent with a college degree: 17.9 percent
Percent Georgia natives: 79.4 percent
White: 55.1 percent
Black: 40.1 percent
Hispanic: 2.3 percent
Asian: 1.4 percent
Multirace: 0.2 percent
Other race: 0.2 percent
Source: The Georgia Legislative Navigator on MyAJC.com
DISTRICT 145
Represented by state Rep. Rusty Kidd, independent from Milledgeville
Population: 54,068
Median income: $34,927
Median age: 35.4 years
Percent with a college degree: 17.9 percent
Percent Georgia natives: 79.4 percent
White: 55.1 percent
Black: 40.1 percent
Hispanic: 2.3 percent
Asian: 1.4 percent
Multirace: 0.2 percent
Other race: 0.2 percent
Source: The Georgia Legislative Navigator on MyAJC.com
DISTRICT 145
Represented by state Rep. Rusty Kidd, independent from Milledgeville
Population: 54,068
Median income: $34,927
Median age: 35.4 years
Percent with a college degree: 17.9 percent
Percent Georgia natives: 79.4 percent
White: 55.1 percent
Black: 40.1 percent
Hispanic: 2.3 percent
Asian: 1.4 percent
Multirace: 0.2 percent
Other race: 0.2 percent
Source: The Georgia Legislative Navigator on MyAJC.com
Georgia isn’t blue or red. Vast portions of the state, from peanut country in rural South Georgia to the fast-growing Atlanta suburbs, are a purply stew.
And those sections — call them the swingiest of Georgia’s swing districts — could decide not only the state’s tight presidential race but also the elections down the ballot.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution visited five state House districts scattered across Georgia where the race for the White House seems the tightest.
One of them is District 145 in Middle Georgia, now represented by the lone independent in the Georgia Legislature.
MILLEDGEVILLE — The Middle Georgia district that stretches from a leafy college campus to the now-dismantled towers of a coal-fired power plant might just be the most politically divided area in the state.
House District 145 is so split that a mere three-hundredths of a percentage point separated the presidential candidates in 2012. It’s so split that it’s the only district in modern Georgia history to elect — and then re-elect — an independent candidate to the state Legislature.
And judging by interviews with more than a dozen residents in this conflicted patch of land, voters are just as torn over next month’s election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Consider the take from Kinaji Lawrence, an 18-year-old student who backs Clinton — but made clear his enthusiasm for her is decidedly tepid.
“I will probably vote for her due to the fact that she’s a bit better than everyone else,” said Lawrence, who said he liked Clinton’s higher education plan.
“Trump is a good person, and I see that he’s educated and smart,” he said with a shrug. “But I don’t believe in his ways.”
The split decision is trickling down to the race to replace state Rep. Rusty Kidd, the independent who retired for medical reasons. That contest pits two funeral home owners, Republican Ricky Williams and Democrat Floyd Griffin, against each other.
Many voters indicated they planned to vote straight-ticket Republican or Democrat, which means whichever presidential candidate carries the district is likely to also bring the statehouse seat.
At his downtown office, Kidd rattles off statistics about his soon-to-be-former district’s perpetual divide.
“This election is divided as ever, and so is this district,” Kidd said. “The majority of people who are going to vote are holding their nose.”
As for Kidd, who was a Democrat for 40 years before becoming an independent, that nasal-cringing vote is going for Trump. But he has no clue how the swingiest of Georgia’s swing districts will decide.
“My district will split. Black voters will back Hillary. And the white voters — they outnumber the others by 3,386 — will mostly back Trump,” he said. “So it all comes down to how many people will turn out.”
Which means it comes down to people like Bill Massey, who owns Middle Georgia Cards and Coins. Ask him about his thoughts on the election, and he’ll spit a poem your way.
“Roses are red. Violets are blue. Your candidate stinks and mine does, too,” said Massey, with a well-worn patience that suggested he’s had plenty of practice reciting the lines. “For the first time in my life, I wouldn’t give 10 cents for either one of them.”
His biggest question might not even be whom he picks. It might be whether he even shows up to the polls.
“I haven’t even decided if I vote yet,” he said. “I’ll have to wake up that morning and decide. But I don’t see that it will even matter. I don’t trust anything either of them will do.”
Other swing districts:
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