Twitter in awe of John Lewis’ Clayton County possibly flipping Georgia against Trump
Observed someone as the state appeared to vote for Biden over Trump: 'John Lewis must be smiling from heaven.'
Clayton County, Georgia is on the southern side of Atlanta. It is home to cities like Jonesboro, Riverdale and Forest Park, predominantly Black cities and predominantly middle class.
It is a county that was previously represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by the late, great John Lewis.
And it is the county that turned Georgia blue in this year’s presidential election.
The flip in Georgia marks the first time the state has voted Democratic since the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992.
As time ticked away late Thursday, President Donald Trump‘s huge lead over former Vice President Joe Biden disappeared in Georgia as votes were counted. Provisional, absentee and other ballots were still being tabulated as of Friday morning, lessening the likelihood the state’s 16 electoral votes would go to Trump.
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Social media users stayed up late to watch as the state flipped.
“John Lewis must be smiling from heaven,” one wrote.
“The fact that it’s up to Clayton County and metro Atlanta to flip Georgia. Really means a lot to me. Like not lilole clay co. Not the soufside. Not Jurassic park. We just a small county with big dreams,” one tweeter gushed, gaining hundreds of likes as she referred to one of the nicknames for the heavily-forested area..
Actress Natasha Rothwell, an ardent Biden supporter, tweeted, “Okay that was worth staying up for. John Lewis’ county put Biden in the lead.”
Rothwell also changed her profile picture to one of Stacey Abrams, whose name was also trending last night as the Republican stronghold state turned blue. After losing Georgia’s gubernatorial race in 2018, Abrams launched her Fair Fight initiative, which executed a strong ground campaign to increase voter turnout.
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The irony of it being Lewis’ county that flipped the state is not lost on observers.
President Donald Trump once referred to the civil rights leader’s district as “horrible.” Additionally, when Lewis died in July, the president declined to attend his funeral.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said, “He didn’t come to my inauguration. He didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches. And that’s OK, that’s his right. And again, nobody has done more for Black Americans than I have. He should’ve come. I think he made a big mistake.”
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“He was a person that devoted a lot of energy and lot of heart to civil rights,” said Trump. “But there were many others also.”
In an August interview with CNN, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms condemned the president’s words, opining, “He’s (Trump) done nothing for African Americans in this country, and to speak that in the same sentence as speaking of John Lewis is almost blasphemous.”
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