Donald Trump’s supporters have always contended that Trump did not need the GOP, read that as conservative, base because he could expand the electoral map based on his own awesomeness. As it turns out, Trump was right. His own awesome self is expanding the electoral map.

Hillary Clinton has a 4-point lead over Donald Trump in a new poll of Georgia, which has been seen as a reliably safe state for Republicans in presidential elections.

Clinton leads Trump 44 percent to 40 percent according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey released Friday.

Clinton’s lead shrinks to 3 points when third-party candidates enter the fray. Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson places third, with 11 percent, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein registers at 2 percent.
The poll highlights how the Trump-Clinton race appears to be putting previously safe states for Republicans into play for Clinton. Polls have also shown her competitive with Trump in Arizona and Utah.

Georgia has voted for the GOP’s presidential nominee every election since 1996. Former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband, is the last Democrat to turn Georgia blue, besting then-President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

In fact, since 1960 Georgia has voted for Democrats for president only three times: twice for favorite son Jimmy Carter and once for Bill Clinton.

Yesterday, my colleague, Susan Wright, reported on the Clinton campaign pulling advertising from Virginia because they already had it locked up. This morning Jay Caruso documented the erosion of previously safe GOP states into electoral battlegrounds. What Trump is doing is destroying the very foundations of the GOP as a political party. Trump’s loss will not occur in a vacuum. Governors, county supervisors, mayors, state senators and delegates are going to be hit hard. That wouldn’t be a 100% bad thing if he were actually building something to replace it. But he’s not. He’s simply destroying a party for the sake of his narcissism.