One of my objectives with Trouble in God’s Country has been to put Georgia’s performance across a range of socio-economic measures into a national context. As regular readers may recall, I’ve reported that Georgia has hugely disproportionate shares of its geography and population mired at the bottom of the national ladder for various measures.  

In 2020, for example, Georgia had more people living in counties that were in the bottom national quartile for per capita income than any other state in the nation. Likewise, I found in analyzing educational attainment data that the 147 counties outside my 12-county Metro Atlanta region would constitute the second-worst educated state in the nation, behind Mississippi and just a little better than West Virginia. The Atlanta region would constitute the second-best educated state in the country, behind Colorado and ahead of Massachusetts.

Doing the same thing with health data has always been a little trickier, but a couple of months ago the nonprofit organization County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHRR) came to the rescue.   

As a little background, CHRR has, for more than a decade now, been collecting and reporting key population health metrics on the vast majority of counties in the nation (there are always some counties you can’t get data for). The program is run by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and funded, at least in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

As part of its annual report, it has historically included in-state rankings; with this year’s report, it includes data that makes it possible to rank all counties nationally. Which is just what I needed.

So, the question I’d been waiting to get an answer to was simply: Would the same thing hold true with health? The answer, sadly, is… absolutely.

CHRR gauges county-level health outcomes by stirring together local data for the following measures: premature death rates, the percentage of live births reported with low birthweight, the percentage of adults reporting fair or poor health, and the average number of physically and mentally unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days.

Eighty-three of Georgia’s 159 counties are in the bottom national quartile for health outcomes, based on the CHRR rankings—more than any other state. This includes all but 20 of the counties south of the Gnat Line.

According to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates, those 83 counties are home to 2.43 million Georgians. I’m still stitching together the national population analysis, but I’ll go out on a limb and say I’ll be more than a little surprised if we don’t also lead the nation in the number of people living in bottom-quartile counties.

The counties at the top and bottom of the Georgia list won’t come as a surprise to anybody.  The top five Georgia counties for health outcomes, per the CHRR report, are (in order): Forsyth County, Oconee County, Cherokee County, Cobb County and Columbia County. The bottom five are: Early County at 155th; Crisp at 156th; Randolph County at 157th; Hancock County at 158th and Miller County at 159th.

One other factoid I can include here is that the Georgia-North Carolina contrast I’ve found with other measures holds true with health outcomes as well. Generally regarded as perhaps Georgia’s closest peer state, North Carolina has somehow managed to do a much better job than Georgia of limiting the number of its citizens who fall into the nation’s bottom tier for economic performance and educational attainment.

The same is true with CHRR’s health outcomes. Only 19 of North Carolina’s 100 counties and 6.7% of its population fell into the bottom national quartile for health outcomes in the latest study. In contrast, 22% of Georgia’s population live in the 83 counties that landed in the bottom quartile for health outcomes. 

With both per capita income and educational attainment, I’ve been able to demonstrate that the gap between Georgia and North Carolina developed over time. With both those measures, there was a time when the two states had very comparable data profiles. But over time, North Carolina has done a better job of pulling its citizens out of the bottom national quartile for economic performance and educational attainment. I’ll be surprised if the same pattern doesn’t hold true with health outcomes.

Charles Hayslett is the author of the long-running troubleingodscountry.com blog. He is also the Scholar in Residence at the Center for Middle Georgia Studies at Middle Georgia State University. The views expressed in his columns are his own and are not necessarily those of the Center or the University.

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EXCLUSIVE – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp insists “that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia.”

And Kemp, the popular two-term conservative governor of the crucial southeastern battleground state, emphasized in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital that “there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican…to get to 270 without Georgia.”

Kemp, who was interviewed on Tuesday on the eve of Vice President Kamala Harris’ two-day bus swing through Georgia, said his state “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out.”

“It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were,” Kemp argued.

2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY

The governor was interviewed a couple of days after Trump praised Kemp in a social media post “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country.”

“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the Republican presidential nominee added.

The comments from Trump were a major change of tune when it comes to Georgia’s governor.

For two years following his 2020 election defeat to President Biden – which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia – Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. 

WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE THREE STATES

Trump toned down the criticism in 2022, after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

But earlier this month, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count, but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president on his attempts to reverse the results.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio (left) greets Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump charged. “Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”

Kemp told Fox News “I’m not sure exactly what happened going into the rally. I’ve seen a lot of different stories and people’s explanations of what happened,””

But he said “to me, that was a small distraction that’s in the past.”

And Kemp said that Republicans “need to stay focused on the future…we need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now. And there’s a host of issues that I think you could contrast Kamala Harris and her record.”

“To me, that’s what we need to stay focused on. Not some dustup from two or three weeks ago,” he added.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN 2024 ELECTION

Asked about Trump’s reversal last Thursday, Kemp said “you have to ask him those questions. I’ve been consistent for really the last couple of years that I was going to support the ticket, whoever our nominee was, in Georgia. That’s exactly what I’m doing. What I have been doing.”

But Trump’s statement came moments after Kemp appeared on the Fox News Channel and reiterated to host Sean Hannity that “we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

Asked if he and Trump had connected since last week, Kemp said on Tuesday that “I haven’t talked to him.”

But he shared that “I’ve talked to a lot of other folks and I think everybody has a good understanding of where everybody is and understands my position has not changed. I have been supporting him and the whole ticket in Georgia, and I’m still doing that and will continue to do that through November.”

Republican strategists agree that in order to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp’s well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Kemp said that he’s “working hard” to “turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.”

But the governor added “how that looks and how that goes will really be up to kind of how things play out and what states are in play and who’s going where and when.”

And he noted that “I‘ve got other responsibilities in my duties with the Republican Governors Association, traveling around the country helping to raise money to win North Carolina and hold New Hampshire in our column, and also helping our legislative races here.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (right) joins fellow GOP governors at a Republican Governors Association news conference at a oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, on June 3, 2024 (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Kemp also acknowledged that he’s asked for legal advice from the state attorney general on whether he can remove from the state election board three conservative members on the five-person panel who championed and passed a controversial set of new rules that mandate extra requirements for county election boards to certify their results.

“We’ve asked the attorney general for an opinion on that on whether this would be an official complaint, if you will, and I’m waiting to hear back, so I really wouldn’t be able to comment too much on that since we’re asking for legal advice,” Kemp told Fox News.

Trump, who has been charged in Fulton County, Georgia for election interference, praised the three members for pushing for the new rules and called them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

But Georgia Democrats call the new rules a “concerted effort to subvert democracy,” and have challenged them, arguing they could delay election certification and spark major disputes.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

With Georgia’s week one matchup against Clemson just a few days away, here are a few players who can make a massive impact.

The Georgia Bulldogs are just a few short days away from kicking off their 2024 college football season against the Clemson Tigers.

After years of consistently great play from Sedrick Van Pran, Jared Wilson is expected to be making his first start at the center position for the Bulldogs. A good preformance on Wilson’s end could solidify the Dawgs’ offensive line and help the Bulldogs dominate the offensive line.

Mykel Williams’ pass rush on third down could be the difference maker for Georgia’s turnover battle and could be the reason the Dawgs’ defense holds Clemson to a small point total.

With Roderick Robinson injured and Trevor Etienne’s availability in question, Branson Robinson’s return to the lineup could be massive for the Bulldogs’ offense. Robinson showed flashes of greatness during his freshman season in 2022 but would miss the entire 2023 season with a knee injury.

Joenel Aguero is also expected to be making his first start at the STAR position for the Bulldogs’ and will likely receive a handful of targets throughout the game. Whether or not the young safety performs well will likely have massive implications on the Dawgs’ ability to stop Clemson’s offense.

Dillon Bell emerged as one of the top receivers in the offense last season and has been tabbed as one of the most highly anticipated players on the Bulldogs’ offense. Look for the receiver to make some massive plays on Saturday.

The Bulldogs and Tigers will battle at noon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on August 31st. This will be the teams’ first matchup since the 2021 season opener which Georgia won 10-3.

Georgia Bulldogs 2024 TV Broadcast Schedule

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