Hillary Clinton Could Turn Georgia Blue

New polling indicates that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton currently has a narrow lead over GOP nominee Donald Trump in the state of Georgia. Clinton would be the first Democratic candidate to win the Peach State in two decades.

On Aug. 5, new survey results from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that Clinton leads Trump among Georgia voters in a two-person race by 44 percent to 40 percent, AJC reports.

When the race was expanded to a field four candidates, 41 percent of respondents went for Clinton while 38 percent favored Trump. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson also made a strong showing with 11 percent support while Green Party candidate Jill Stein lagged far behind with two percent.

In the previous AJC poll, conducted in May 2016, Trump lead by four points, 45 percent of respondents supporting the business mogul while 41 percent sided with Clinton.

Both Clinton and Trump are both viewed negatively by the majority of Georgia voters, garnering an equal 58 percent unfavorability rating.

The last time a Democratic candidate won the state of Georgia was in 1992, when former Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas won the presidency over President George H.W. Bush. The Peach State would swing for Republican nominee Bob Dole in 1996 and has remained reliably Republican since.

The Clinton campaign has yet to make a concerted effort to campaign in Georgia, but the new data indicating that she can flip the state blue may lead to increased resources in their Peach State ground game.

On Aug. 4, the Senate Minority Leader, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, signaled that Clinton would campaign heavily in Georgia. Politico reports.

“If you look at Georgia — Georgia, last re-elect for President Obama, he never stepped foot in Georgia, but yet he lost by about three percent,” Reid said. “Georgia’s Hillary Clinton’s, and I’m glad she’s going to be campaigning there.”

Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia has dismissed the polling, stating that the Clinton campaign is getting its hopes up for nothing.

“We hear this every year about this time, ‘Oh, Georgia’s turning, it’s going to be a purple state and then it’s going to become a blue state,’ but it never happens,” Kingston told CNN.

The GOP lawmaker added “I hope that Hillary Clinton spends a lot of time in Georgia and spends a lot of money because that will free up our resources to go to Pennsylvania, Florida and other states.”

Sources: AJC, CNN, Politico / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr