Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat whose narrow loss in the governor’s race in 2018 catapulted her to national prominence as a voting rights advocate, said Wednesday that she would run again for governor in 2022.
The announcement sets up a high-profile potential rematch with Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, Their 2018 contest was one of the most narrowly decided races for governor that year and was dominated by allegations of voter suppression, which Kemp denied, according to the Associated Press.
Abrams, a former top Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives tweeted her announcement, saying she is running “because opportunity in our state shouldn’t be determined by zip code, background or access to power.”
And according to the New York Times, her candidacy ensures that voting rights will remain at the center of the political conversation in Democratic circles and in Georgia, where Republicans enacted a sweeping law of voting restrictions this year.
There will be quite a bit of historical significance if Abrams succeeds in her campaign. She would become the first Black governor of Georgia and the first Black woman to serve as governor of any state.
Drawing the battle lines
Her prospective face-off with Mr. Kemp — along with a critical Senate race and several important House contests — means that Georgia will again be a major political battleground in 2022.
Last year, the state backed a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992, held two runoff elections that gave Democrats control of the Senate, and was a central focus of former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.
Kemp drew the ire of Trump for not more forcefully going along with his baseless claims of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere in the 2020 election, with Trump turning on Kemp and pledging to make him pay politically for his disloyalty.
Trump’s revenge tour could very well include former Sen. David Perdue, who lost reelection to Sen. Jon Ossoff in a runoff at the beginning of the year. Republicans in the state have told CNN they expect Perdue to make a decision soon about running against Kemp.
It could all boil down to what would happen if Perdue runs against Kemp in the Republican primary. More than likely, it would cause a split in the GOP and upend Georgia’s governor race.
Trump’s anger at Kemp is so deep that he has at times lauded Abrams as a way to attack the Republican governor. While speaking in Georgia earlier this year, Trump said of Kemp, “Stacey, would you like to take his place? It’s OK with me.”
He added: “Of course having her, I think, might be better than having your existing governor – if you want to know what I think. Might very well be better.”
It looks like we will all have to follow what happens in Georgia very closely.
