TENNILLE — A lot can be said about one’s upbringing and how it prepares you for your future life.
Former Gov. Nathan Deal, a Sandersville native, and Tennille Mayor Eartha Cummings both say the small-town values of their childhood and a desire to make things better for those around them set them on their paths to politics.
The pair also highlight a common trend in Washington County, a divided county when it comes to political affiliation.
Residents say it’s a politically moderate place. Blacks, who make up 53% of the county’s residents, typically support Democrats, while many whites, who account for 44% of the population, back Republicans.
Cummings, who is Black, serves in a nonpartisan role as mayor, though she has always identified with Democratic policies. She plans to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
And though Deal, who is white, began his political career as a Democrat, he’s now a Republican after switching parties in 1995 while serving in Congress. He intends to vote for former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
Credit: Maya Prabhu
Credit: Maya Prabhu
Local partisan races are dominated by Democrats, even if the candidate is conservative and pushes conservative policies while in office. Republicans can’t get elected to county offices, residents say.
“A lot of people don’t know the individuals or do their research, so they just vote for the Democrat,” Cummings said.
Neither Cummings nor Deal said they were very political growing up, though Deal was elected student body president while attending Mercer University.
Deal moved to Sandersville when he was 3 years old as his parents pursued teaching jobs. The 82-year-old former governor now lives in Demorest, about 130 miles north of Washington County, but he said his childhood there was formative.
In high school, he joined the Future Farmers of America, which allowed him to meet people from across the state. It also allowed Deal, an only child, to enter and win a speech competition, something that helped set the introvert up for his days as a politician.
Deal said he’s not a huge fan of Trump’s public persona. In person, Trump is much less brash and braggadocious, he said.
“In person, he’s nice,” Deal said of meeting Trump during the former president’s visits to Georgia.
“He doesn’t show those characteristics,” Deal said.
Deal said he admires that Trump says he doesn’t drink or do drugs, nor do his children.
“If he just let people know those kind of things about he and his family instead of calling people names and making people mad, I think he’d be a whole lot better off,” the former governor said.
Deal said he’s not voting for Trump’s personality, but the policies the candidate supports.
“I think he had some very good policies,” Deal said. “He’ll put our nation back on track because it’s gotten off track. I have great concerns about some of the policies of Democrats.”
Cummings, born and raised in Tennille, said her mother and grandparents always voted, but politics weren’t something they discussed at home. Education was, she said. She and all six of her siblings have postsecondary educations.
While serving as part-time mayor, Cummings, 57, also is a special education teacher and director of operations at New Birth Christian Ministries in Tennille. Since her election as mayor in 2018, she said her policy has been to work for all the people of her city, not just the ones who support her.
That’s one of the reasons she says she’s backing Harris, who is Black and of Indian descent.
“It matters when you see someone who looks like you,” Cummings recently said during the monthly Women’s Department meeting at her church. “It matters when you’re not the only one in the room. When I saw her on Thursday (of the Democratic National Convention accepting the presidential nomination), it made me say, ‘I can do anything.’ ”
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