With the 2020 election exactly a week from today, the most expensive presidential race in history figures to get even more costly down the home stretch.
More than $2.4 billion already has been raised by both major-party candidates, and Democratic former vice president Joe Biden has generated $1.7 billion of those contributions, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Republican president Donald Trump has raised more than $734 million, according to those estimates, which were published Monday and revealed in various interactive maps.
They include a ZIP code breakdown that shows that while Biden’s campaign has received more individual donors in East Cobb, Trump’s has generated more money from the four primary ZIP codes in the community.
Trump campaign contributions in East Cobb total $734,081, compared to $664,294 for Biden, for an overall total of $1,398,375.
The reporting periods are from April 1 to Oct. 14, and include contributions of $200 or more.
Suburban areas are considered battleground territory, including metro Atlanta, where Biden was campaigning Tuesday. From the Times analysis:
“In Georgia, the data shows that many of the suburban ZIP codes surrounding Atlanta, which are helping turn the state into a true presidential battleground for the first time in decades, are solidly Democratic when it comes to the number of donors, all the way deep into Gwinnett County, a swing county trending Democratic.”
Georgia is considered a toss-up state by some pollsters, and an AJC poll released Monday has Biden holding a 47-46 lead over Trump, who won the state with only 51 percent in 2016.
According to the same data from The New York Times, here’s how the contributors from East Cobb break down, showing it to be an outlier, at least on the money-raising front:
30062
- Total contributions: Biden 1,408; Trump 1,038
- Contribution amounts: Trump $217,021; Biden $165,640
30066
- Total contributions: Biden 1,031; Trump 858
- Contribution amounts: Trump $161,457; Biden 87,527
30067
- Total contributions: Biden 723; Trump 501
- Contribution amounts: Trump $169,136; Biden $103,280
30068
- Total contributions: Biden 898; Trump 655
- Contribution amounts: Trump $186,467; Biden $142,207
The 30075 ZIP code includes most of Roswell and a small portion of Northeast Cobb. Biden got 1,591 contributors to Trump’s 1,096 there, but the president outraised the former vice president $266,480 to $208,187.
How that money may translate into votes is another matter. Trump won all but six of the 47 precincts in East Cobb in 2016, and won many of the heavy-turnout precincts handily (you can read through the results here).
Although East Cobb has been a strong Republican area for the last few decades, since Trump’s election its politics have become more competitive, even down to the local level.
That’s part of a broader Democratic surge in Cobb County and parts of metro Atlanta.
In 2018, Lucy McBath became the first Democrat to win the 6th Congressional District seat in 40 years, dating back Newt Gingrich’s first election victory.
Also two years ago, Democrats won a legislative seat in the East Cobb area (District 37, by Mary Frances Williams) and a Cobb Board of Education seat that includes the Walton and Wheeler school zones (by Charisse Davis in Post 6).
Democrats are contesting every race that’s up in East Cobb, and in many cases their candidates got more votes than Republicans in the primaries.
Here’s more from the Times about some of those changing political trends:
“Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who studies demographic trends, said ‘the donations mirror voting patterns,’ as white voters with college degrees have swung sharply toward the Democrats in the last decade, with the trend expected to accelerate further in 2020 with Mr. Trump on the ticket.
“ ‘It makes perfect sense,’ Mr. Ayres said of the donation data. ‘Basically, Republicans have traded larger, more upscale, fast-growing suburban counties for smaller, down-scale, slower-growing rural counties. That’s not a promising trend for future victories.’ ”
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