[5] The county is located mainly in the upper Atlantic coastal plain region of the state, but does have some rolling hills due to its close proximity to the fall line.

[18] Decades later, in the 1948 presidential election Harry Truman only won the county by one vote from States’ Rights candidate Strom Thurmond.

It also delivered large victories to segregationist American Independent Party candidate George Wallace and Republican Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972 respectively.

This was also the first time since 1848, when Whig Zachary Taylor narrowly won Georgia, that the county voted for a presidential candidate who did not win the state.

Wilkinson was thus one of many counties in Georgia's historic black belt that demonstrated a significant swing in favor of Republican presidential candidates from 2012 to 2016.

[20] Even as it has become more favorable to Republicans at the state and federal level, Wilkinson's county government continued to be dominated by Democrats up until the 2020s.

In 2016, Democrats won all six county executive offices without Republican opposition, as well as the three school board seats up for election that year.