Chatham County, Georgia is a politically charged area with many interesting and important local politics. The county plays a large role in the state's political landscape and is home to a number of politicians who have had an impact on the state. Chatham County has two congressional representatives in Congress—Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) and Rep. John Barrow (D-GA-12). Additionally, there is a state senator from Chatham County, Senator Lester Jackson (D-GA), whose district covers most of the county. On the local level, Chatham is represented by its own county commission which has nine members elected in nonpartisan elections every four years. Also active in local politics are several special districts such as the Savannah Regional Planning Commission, Development Authority of Chatham County and St. Joseph's/Candler Hospital District Board of Trustees. These entities all play an important role in governing Chatham County and helping to ensure its continued success in both economic development and social services offered to its residents. As a result, local politics in Chatham County are an ever changing landscape that can be difficult to keep up with but provides citizens with numerous opportunities for engaging with their government and having their voices heard.
The political climate in Chatham County, GA is moderately liberal.
In Chatham County, GA 58.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 39.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Chatham county remained very strongly Democratic, 58.6% to 39.9%.
Chatham county voted Democratic in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Republican in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Chatham County, GA is moderately liberal.
Savannah Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Georgia is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Chatham, Georgia: r d D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Chatham County, GA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 10,840 contributions totaling $673,958 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $62 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4,689 contributions totaling $1,762,716 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $376 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)