Growth in Oconee County has been recent, so if White Flight was a factor then it’s more recent and thus more R. I can’t speak that much about the character of Athens as I’ve never been there, but what is the townie population like? It might be like Tuscaloosa where outside of the college students it’s a mostly non-White town and there’s a typical Deep South racial divide in the area at large. A lot of college towns are also deceptively diverse and low SES, where the year-round population might be heavily non-White but that gets drowned out by the student population, both in the census/ACS and in elections, which of course happen in November. In NJ, for example, New Brunswick is supermajority Latino and virtually no one under 18 is White, but it doesn’t really carry that reputation. Athens seems to have a reputation as a more hip and college-y place than NB, but the point might still stand.
Its really the uncivilized high crime an ultra liberalism from Athens Clarke County. Just ask the parents of Laken Riley
https://www.accgov.com/DocumentCenter/View/87246/Resolution---Support-of-Athens-Immigrant-Undocumented-and-Latinx-Community-8202019
