South in play: longtime red states emerge as potential battleground for Democrats

Southern gains reshape expectations

After early-voting ended in Georgia, former Vice President Kamala Harris told Fulton County Democrats in Atlanta that the state’s gains offered a model spreading across the South. Less than a week later, Democrats swept Georgia and Texas statewide offices and flipped Republican-held Senate seats in the Carolinas.

At the time of the report, a Democrat was ahead of a Republican incumbent in Mississippi’s Senate vote count. Trump carried all the states cited in 2024, some by double-digit margins, making the Democratic results notable to party members considering where to invest before 2028.

Voters shifted in key races

Black voters, who make up more than a quarter of Georgia’s electorate, have historically favored Democrats by wide margins. The ABC News Voter Poll found about nine in 10 supported Sen. Jon Ossoff and governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Organizing and political headwinds

After Democrats’ major Georgia losses in 2024, the state party made its chair role full time and expanded its organizing operation. The article says that effort helped candidates across the ballot reach voters dissatisfied with Trump and the economy under his administration.

Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson credited the state party’s work with Ossoff and Bottoms for turning out voters. Another speaker cautioned that favorable conditions alone would not secure a win, amid declining Republican approval.

Voting rights and map disputes

A Supreme Court decision dismantling a key part of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, followed by a Georgia special session on redrawing maps, triggered a large backlash from Democrats and voting rights advocates. Georgia Republicans then dropped the effort amid concern it could harm them in the midterms.

North Carolina Republicans redrew congressional districts in 2025 to give the GOP an advantage in the 1st District, represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis. The historically Black district had been represented by a Black Democrat for three decades. Democratic Rep. Valerie Foushee said people were tired and fed up.