There’s a very large music and arts scene that strongly contributes to the culture of the city.
The southern sorority/fraternity kids who are more conservative just go to school there and move away when they graduate, only coming back for game days. The folks who stay there after graduation or the people who choose to move there tend to be the more creative types. Some call them “townies” lol
Source: I went to college there
This is something that goes misunderstood about college town politics in general, I feel. Undergrads (in as much as they even vote where they go to school) are not the base of Democratic support. It's the townies and university staff/faculty. This is especially appreciable at UGA, where the "conservative" undergrad culture contrasts with liberal Athens.
The Khaki Line be a thing for real.
You can see this the other way at A&M where the universties rapid exapansion has washed out much off the conservative bend of traditonal aggies who were enrolled but the town is still pretty conservative due to the kind of people attracted there,.
