Stacey Abrams Is Running for Governor of Georgia. Again.
The Black Democrat narrowly lost the gubernatorial race in 2018 to Republican Brian Kemp.
NewsPoliticsStacey Abrams launched her second gubernatorial campaign in Georgia on Wednesday. In 2018, she narrowly lost to Brian Kemp after accusations of voter suppression plagued Georgia’s elections.
This second campaign has Abrams again attempting to become the first Black governor in Georgia and the first Black woman governor in our country’s history. Republicans have helmed the state of Georgia since 2002 and while Kemp is seeking re-election, the Republican primary is bit of doozy this year, so it might not be a 2018 rematch.
“Regardless of the pandemic or the storms, the obstacles in our way or the forces determined to divide us, my job has been to just put my head down and keep working toward one Georgia,” Abrams says in her video launch posted to Twitter on Wednesday. “Because in the end, we are one Georgia.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that for now Abrams plans on smaller meetings and fundraisers with constituents and a larger statewide launch in the new year.
Days ago, The Hill reported that Democratic operatives were worried about Abrams’ “continued silence on her plans.” Well, if only they had waited two days, their worried heads could have been soothed by this news. One of the few credible Democratic candidates for the position, besides Abrams, said in the report that he would not run if Abrams wanted to.
“Stacey has earned the right to challenge Brian Kemp. She ran a great race four years ago,” DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, a former state legislator and labor commissioner told Georgia Public Broadcasting in November. “There were questions about the administration of the election, and she has a right to make a decision and to challenge him, and I’m going to respect that.”
Don’t worry, Michael! She is on it. And, by the looks of it, Kemp is sure to not respect Abrams’s right to join the race. After learning of her candidacy, the governor of Georgia took time out of his day to write a four-tweet thread (or demand a social media producer do so) about how bad Abrams would be for Georgia. He called next year’s race the “battle for the soul” of Georgia.
The “soul” of Georgia is pretty well eroded as Kemp and Georgia GOP has tried to suppress voters at every turn. During the 2018 matchup, Kemp was Secretary of State, the position responsible for managing elections in the state. Abrams accused his office of aggressively purging voters from the rolls in order to help his prospects.
To counteract her loss, Abrams started a group to get people registered to vote. She told activists that since then, 800,000 new voters registered to vote in the state with The Washington Post reporting 49 percent were under 30.
Best of luck to the woman who spent the last four years working to register voters while raising money and stumping for literally any Democrat that asks.