While we wait for the results of today’s special election in Georgia’s 6th District—the most expensive congressional race in history, and a potential referendum on Donald Trump—here’s a bit of trivia to ponder:
The voters in Georgia’s Trump-electing 6th District are exactly as educated as the voters in Seattle’s Hillary-supporting 7th District.
Don’t believe it? Here’s a New York Times graph of “the 15 best-educated districts in the U.S.“
It shows that Seattle’s 7th District and Georgia’s 6th District both hold exactly the same percentage of adults with at least a college degree: 56 percent.
There’s a theory out there that says the more educated a district, the more likely it is to be turned off by Trump (and by Republicans like GA-6 candidate Karen Handel, who supports Trump’s policies). This dynamic didn’t quite flip Georgia’s 6th into Hillary Clinton’s column during the presidential election; Clinton lost to Trump in Georgia’s 6th by a slim 1.5 percentage points.
We’ll know soon if the educational make-up of the 6th helps tip the district in Ossoff’s favor. But if you’re a Seattleite who was preparing, in the event of an Ossoff defeat, to comfort yourself with the idea that at least the voters of WA-7 are smarter than the voters of GA-6… Well, better look for a new coping strategy.
