Williamson County flips blue for president and Sheriff, stays red for other seats
GEORGETOWN, Texas - While former vice president Biden didn’t take Texas, he managed to turn a county that’s historically been red.
It was a big week for Democrats in Williamson County as the area voted for a Democratic president, something that hasn’t been done in years.
“It’s a great feeling, felt a lot better to wake up this morning than it did four years ago. We’ve felt for a long time we are not really red, we are a no voting county so I think we’re starting to see some of our hard work pay off. It’s a good time to be a Democrat in Williamson County that’s for sure,” said Kim Gilby, the Williamson County Democratic Party chair.
RELATED: 68% of voters have already cast their ballot in Williamson County
“We’re chipping away at the Republican stronghold. Every election year we elect a few more Democrats and we will continue to do that down the road. We are just getting started," Gilby continued.
One thing to note is voters didn’t vote for every Democratic candidate in Williamson County, The main victories for the Democrats were for the presidency and the local sheriff, while most of the other options on the ticket went Republican.
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This also isn’t the only time Williamson County went blue; two years ago they voted for Beto O’Rourke over Ted Cruz in the fight for the Senate.
“If you look at the overall picture, you can say we are definitely purple we are definitely not red like some folks like to say. You can call us purple, you can call us light blue, but you can’t call us red anymore,” said Gilby.
According to the county's Republican Party chair Steve Armbruster, they aren’t too worried about the county turning blue and that the issue lies with the candidates, not the party.
RELATED: Change at Williamson County Sheriff's Office brings hope, anxiety
“This election cycle we had two candidates on the ballot that really had negativities and those two candidates couldn’t carry the day in Williamson County,” said Armbruster.
Armbruster said he’s confident that the next election cycle will be much different. “I think it’s temporary, I mean candidates matter and campaigning matters. In two years the president is not going to be on the ballot, the sheriff is not going to be on the ballot, we’re gonna have a different set of candidates and I think we’re going to be fine,” said Armbruster.