Atlanta increasingly controlling the rest of the state.
No actually Atlanta does not. There are a lot of dark red suburban areas around the core of dark Blue Atlanta
Here the problem. MOST of the poling done in GA comes from the AJC. It always points GA as being a “purple” state. So people outside GA always think it “in play”. There are a lot of religious hard working minorities here who the Dem assume are their voters. They actually have very little in common with Abrams sort of poltican.
Then surprise surprise on Election day, a good chunk of them vote R.
The “minority base” of the Democrat party in GA is not nearly as monolithic as Democrat pollsters, and the media, claim it is.