Savannah - To say conventional political wisdom in Savannah was upended by this month's elections is like saying this city near the sea has only a passing fascination with St. Patrick's Day festivities.
Edna Jackson, the city’s first black female leader, became the first incumbent mayor defeated here in 20 years, beaten by a conservative business owner. Two other black female contenders for the City Council were rejected by voters. They, too, fell to a pair of graying, white candidates.
That's a seismic electoral shift in a city with a population that's 55 percent black — minority voters who typically overwhelmingly support Democrats in Georgia — and hadn't elected a Republican-leaning mayor since 1991. Sea change, indeed.
If national elections are typically about the economy, Savannah contests have long revolved around public safety. And the incoming mayor, Eddie DeLoach, capitalized on concerns about crime to build a new coalition he hopes will endure.
“Maybe I’m Don Quixote tilting at windmills," DeLoach said in an interview. "But I feel like this is a time where the black community looked at a white candidate and said, ‘I’m willing to give that guy a chance.’"
About the Author
