Editing Henry County, Georgia (section)

== Government and politics ==
The Henry County Board of Commissioners is responsible for administering county government to residents. Four commissioners are elected by voters in individual districts, while the commission chairman is elected countywide and serves as the county's chief executive. June Wood, the former commission chair, was the first African-American to serve in the position after being elected in a December 2016 run-off election. She left office in December 2020 after losing her bid for re-election. As of January 2023, the following individuals serve the county on the Board of Commissioners:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Henry County Board of Commissioners<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.co.henry.ga.us/Government/Henry-County-Board-of-Commissioners|title=Henry County Board of Commissioners {{!}} Board of Commissioners|website=www.co.henry.ga.us|language=en-US|access-date=February 24, 2023}}</ref>
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" | Name
! align="center" | Party
! align="center" | District
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}} |
| Carlotta Harris-Harrell
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| Chairman (at-large)
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Republican Party (United States)}} |
| Johnny Wilson
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 1
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}} |
| Neat Robinson
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| 2
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Republican Party (United States)}} |
| Dee Anglyn III
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 3
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}} |
| Michael Price
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| 4
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}} |
| Kevin Lewis
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| 5
|}
Prior to [[1984 United States presidential election in Georgia|1984]], Henry County had a presidential voting pattern typical of any other [[Solid South]] county in Georgia, consistently awarding landslide margins to Democrats. In 1920, it was one of three counties in the state (alongside [[Bleckley County, Georgia|Bleckley]] and [[Columbia County, Georgia|Columbia]]) to give 100% of the vote to Democratic nominee [[James M. Cox]].<ref>Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); ''America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964''; pp. 96-98 {{ISBN|0405077114}}</ref> The first Republican to win Henry County was [[Richard Nixon]] in [[1972 United States presidential election in Georgia|1972]], doing so with 77.93% of the vote,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=1972 Presidential General Election Results - Georgia|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=13&year=1972|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> though it returned to the Democratic column when native Georgian [[Jimmy Carter]] won it in [[1976 United States presidential election in Georgia|1976]] and [[1980 United States presidential election in Georgia|1980]].

From 1984 to [[2004 United States presidential election in Georgia|2004]], Henry County was a Republican stronghold, consistent with several Atlanta suburbs, as well as other suburban areas across the country.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last1=Tavernise|first1=Sabrina|last2=Gebeloff|first2=Robert|date=October 25, 2019|title=Are the Suburbs Turning Democratic?|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/democrats-republicans-suburbs.html|access-date=January 13, 2021}}</ref> Strong margins in Henry County and other Atlanta suburbs were vital to Republicans' performance, offsetting strongly Democratic Black voters in Atlanta proper.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Savicki|first=Drew|date=October 26, 2020|title=The Road to 270: Georgia|url=https://www.270towin.com/news/2020/10/26/the-road-270-georgia_1116.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[270toWin]]}}</ref> Republican dominance peaked in [[1988 United States presidential election in Georgia|1988]], when [[George H. W. Bush|George H.W. Bush]] won 71.11% of the vote to Michael Dukakis' 28.41%, a 42.7% margin of victory.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=1988 Presidential General Election Results - Georgia|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=13&year=1988|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> During this time, no Democrat managed to attain even 40 percent of the county's vote.

In the 2010s, the county rapidly flipped from being safely Republican at the start of the decade to safely Democratic by the end, thanks to explosive population growth that brought an influx of Democratic-leaning minority voters into the county, and a growing Democratic trend among suburban voters in general.<ref name=":0" /> The African American percentage of the population increased from 14.7% in the [[2000 United States census|2000 Census]] to 36.9% in [[2010 United States census|2010]] and 48.4% in [[2020 United States census|2020]], while the white proportion of the population fell from 81.4% in 2000 to 55.0% in 2010 and 35.9% in 2020.<ref name="GR8">{{cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=U.S. Census |url=https://www.census.gov |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=May 14, 2011 |website= |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]}}</ref> In [[2004 United States presidential election in Georgia|2004]], Democrat [[John Kerry]] lost the county by 33.7%, but in [[2008 United States presidential election in Georgia|2008]]<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=2008 Presidential General Election Results - Henry County, GA|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2008&fips=13151&f=0&off=0&elect=0|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> and [[2012 United States presidential election in Georgia|2012]], Democrat [[Barack Obama]] lost the county by only 7.4% and 3.3%, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=2012 Presidential General Election Results - Henry County, GA|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2012&fips=13151&f=0&off=0&elect=0|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> In [[2016 United States presidential election in Georgia|2016]], [[Hillary Clinton]] won the county for the Democrats for the first time in 36 years, by a 4.4 percentage point margin of victory, despite the rightward shift taken by the rest of the country.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=2016 Presidential General Election Results - Henry County, GA|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2016&fips=13151&f=0&off=0&elect=0|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> In [[2020 United States presidential election in Georgia|2020]], the county swung 16.1 points deeper into the Democratic column, the largest Democratic swing of any county in the country in that election,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=2020 Presidential Election Statistics|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/stats.php?year=2020&f=0&off=0&elect=0|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 13, 2021|website=[[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]]}}</ref> culminating in [[Joe Biden]] winning the county by 20.5 percentage points as he carried Georgia. In [[2022 Georgia gubernatorial election|2022]], it was one of the few counties where [[Stacey Abrams]] improved on her [[2018 Georgia gubernatorial election|2018]] margin against Republican [[Brian Kemp]] even as she performed worse statewide. She took 61% of the vote, and [[Raphael Warnock]] defeated [[Herschel Walker]] with a similar share of the vote in [[2022 United States Senate election in Georgia|the concurrent Senate race]]. In [[2024 United States presidential election in Georgia|2024]], [[Kamala Harris]] won 64.5% of the vote in Henry,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Election Results |url=https://results.sos.ga.gov/results/public/henry-county-ga/elections/2024NovGen |access-date=2024-11-10 |website=results.sos.ga.gov}}</ref> a continued improvement on both Clinton and Biden's margins despite her statewide loss, and also the best showing for a non-Georgian Democrat in the county since [[John F. Kennedy]] in [[1960 United States presidential election in Georgia|1960]]. Henry swung the furthest for Harris than any other county in the state that year.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2024 |orig-date=2024 |title=2024 Presidential Election Statistics |url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/stats.php?year=2024&f=0&off=0&elect=0 |access-date=March 3, 2025 |website=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}</ref>
{{PresHead|place=Henry County, Georgia|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|44,982|83,253|1,539|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|48,259|73,443|1,314|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|45,724|50,057|3,586|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|46,774|43,761|996|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|47,157|40,567|762|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|42,759|21,096|380|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|25,815|11,971|1,081|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|16,968|9,498|2,608|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|12,634|7,817|3,833|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|10,882|4,348|74|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|9,142|4,096|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|5,326|5,635|307|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|2,622|5,717|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|5,155|1,460|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|2,017|2,317|3,604|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|3,125|3,583|1|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|1,041|2,957|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|848|2,636|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|553|2,589|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|229|1,400|217|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|152|1,461|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|101|1,551|2|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|116|1,362|4|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|21|1,496|15|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|360|763|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|53|594|67|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|0|608|0|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|78|868|89|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|15|536|122|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|369|369|78|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|64|464|253|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|378|639|52|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|568|569|83|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1892|Democratic|578|718|569|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1888|Democratic|512|1,136|25|Georgia}}
{{PresRow|1884|Democratic|694|933|0|Georgia}}
{{PresFoot|1880|Democratic|506|691|0|Georgia}}

Henry County is one of six "reverse pivot counties", counties that voted Republican in 2008 and 2012 before voting Democratic in 2016 onward.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Reverse-Pivot_Counties:_The_counties_that_voted_McCain-Romney-Clinton_from_2008-2016 |title=Reverse-Pivot Counties: The counties that voted McCain-Romney-Clinton from 2008-2016 |access-date=May 29, 2020 |archive-date=November 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105072046/https://ballotpedia.org/Reverse-Pivot_Counties:_The_counties_that_voted_McCain-Romney-Clinton_from_2008-2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>