It first voted Republican in 1964, but was out of reach for the Democrats in the meantime outside of the Carter elections.
Did Clinton do it due to winning rural whites, and Perot taking over proto-Tea Party conservatives, or was it something else?
Some other forum members were more specific with answering your topic thread’s question.
I will note that, historically, every winning Democrat has carried at least one of the two of Georgia and/or Florida.
There is no past Democratic winner who carried zero of these two states.
The last Republican who carried neither Georgia or Florida was 1924 Calvin Coolidge.
In 1992, Bill Clinton carried Georgia but not Florida. (1988 winning Republican George Bush carried Florida by just over +22 percentage points vs. his U.S. Popular Vote outcome of +7.72.) In 1996, Clinton lost Georgia, as it flipped Republican for Bob Dole, while he counter-flipped Florida.
Florida was operating as a bellwether state, not voting for winners in 1960 and 1992, from 1928 to 2016. With exception in 1992, Florida voted the same as Ohio when the Buckeye State—with a then-impeccable reputation as the quintessential bellwether state—was carried in 14 consecutive elections from 1964 to 2016.
As demonstrated in 2020, and moving forward, a winning Democrat will carry Georgia (without Florida).
