Why did the Democrats in the 2018 GA runoff elections underperform so badly in the Atlanta suburbs?

[MT Treasurer]

Brad Raffensperger won Cobb and only lost Gwinnett very narrowly on a night when he won statewide by 4, even after Abrams had carried those counties handily in November and the D base in the state was still energized. With a better D performance in the Atlanta metro, Democrats could have easily won both runoffs.

In retrospect, losing Cobb was about as surprising as Gillespie winning Loudoun in 2014.

[KaiserDave]

That SoS runoff is very interesting because Barrow did great outside of Cobb and Gwinett. And I believe he over performed Biden and perhaps Ossoff/Warnock everywhere.

[Motorcity]

I live in Tennessee and our suburbs have actually bucked the national trend and barely moved. Southern suburbs are stubborn. Racist white southern need to be dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.

Or if your in Florida running back to the 1950s

[Bootes Void]

Low turnout

[Politics Fan]

Lower turnout was probably a big reason not as many voters care about the SOS office. Additionally more people are willing to ticket split for these lower tier offices as well. It's also possible Barrow was too conservative for some Dems causing them to stay home or vote Republican even.

[DINGO Joe]

Brad Raffensperger won Cobb and only lost Gwinnett very narrowly on a night when he won statewide by 4, even after Abrams had carried those counties handily in November and the D base in the state was still energized. With a better D performance in the Atlanta metro, Democrats could have easily won both runoffs.

In retrospect, losing Cobb was about as surprising as Gillespie winning Loudoun in 2014.

I guess in part the Raffensperger was from N. Fulton vs a rural D, plus as mentioned weak turnout for an SoS race.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Nobody cares about the SOS office, there are a million more voters on the rolls than there were in December 2018, Barrow was a conservative Democrat who refused to campaign with Stacey Abrams both before the general and after he made it to a runoff.