In deepest red Georgia, voters cling to small-town life

A couple of mornings each week, sometimes a handful of men, sometimes a dozen, can be found sitting between the cash register and a wood-burning stove. There are retirees and the actively employed. Some stop by for quick one-liners and laughs. Others stay for hours.

“I’d say 90% of what we talk about is all the stupid stuff the government has done,” said Blake Griffith, a 30-year-old who lives in Homer.

Credit: Steve Schaefer /

Credit: Steve Schaefer /

Many people in the county describe themselves as conservative, with small-town values. They aren’t so much pro-big business, like much of the Republican Party, as they are socially conservative — against abortion, in favor of the Second Amendment.

Not long ago at the hardware store, talk turned to the SK Battery America plant, located just across the line in Jackson County. The hardware collective disagrees with governments’ tendencies to give incentives to a business to locate in an area. A company, they say, needs to pay its own way and its share of taxes. For that matter, the men don’t want big industry in Banks County.

Around Georgia and the country, job growth might be a key political issue. But not here. In Banks County, with a population just over 19,000, many residents, including elected officials, say they are happy with things the way they are.

“We’re a rural county, and we want to keep it that way,” said Charles Turk, chairman of the Banks County Board of Commissioners.

People here like that there’s one elementary school, one middle school and one high school. They like the small student-teacher ratio and the familiarity school administrations have with most students’ families. They are happy keeping chain restaurants, hotels and retail outlets confined to Banks Crossing, the corridor at I-85 and U.S. 441, roughly 12 miles from the hardware store.

If those places creep farther north toward the heart of Homer, some say, it could mean property taxes going up for residents and mom-and-pop businesses such as Tiny Town Restaurant and David and Katie’s Amish Store.

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“Property values can increase to where you can’t afford not to sell out to developers,” said Jill Brown, who moved here from Gwinnett County 30 years ago. “That’s what happened in Gwinnett, and it can happen here, too.”

In the 2020 presidential election, 88.5% of voters in Banks County chose Donald Trump. But some in the county say it’s not so much about Trump as it is about the party. Sure, there are Trump die-hards. But whoever wears the Republican label tends to get more votes.

After a recent Rotary Club meeting, longtime resident Jody Parks said protecting constitutional rights, especially the Second Amendment, securing the border and maintaining a small-town feel in Banks County are at the top of her mind.

“There’s people flocking to rural areas from Democrat-ruled big cities, and I feel like northeast Georgia — Banks, Stephens, Habersham, Franklin (counties) — is the last vestige for people to have farms,” Parks, 56, said.

Banks County hasn’t gone for a Democrat in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1980. Still, there are some Democrats here. In 2020, 932 votes were cast for Joe Biden.

“We’re real, and we do exist,” joked Nancy Lehman, a retiree.

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Both Lehman and Elaine Gerke, head of the Banks County Democrats, agreed that maintaining rural aspects here is important. But they’re concerned about access to health care — Banks County has no hospital or medical specialists. The goal in the 2024 presidential election, Gerke said, is to increase votes for Biden by just 3%. Biden carried the state by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020, which means just 25 more blue votes in Banks County this time around would be a lift, Gerke said.

“What’s encouraging to us,” she said, “is that what we’re trying to do is not unattainable.”