Stacey Abrams announces run for Georgia governor

ATLANTA (CN) — Stacey Abrams officially launched her campaign for Georgia governor on Wednesday, imposing a potential rematch against current Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

If elected, Abrams would make history as the first Black, female governor and also the first Democratic Georgia governor since 2002.

The 47 year-old politician, lawyer, New York Times bestselling author and former minority leader of Georgia's House of Representatives promotes in her new campaign an effort towards "One Georgia."

“Opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by your zip code, background or access to power,” Abrams said in her campaign video. “For the past four years, when the hardest times hit us all, I’ve worked to do my part to help families make it through."

In the video, Abrams says that she has been working to pay off medical debt for tens of thousands of Georgians, expand access to vaccines, bring supplies to overwhelmed food banks and provide aide to rural Georgia.

"We helped finance small businesses trying to stay afloat, and I spoke up for families being left behind," said Abrams. "My job has been to just put my head down and keep working toward One Georgia.”

During her last run for Governor in 2018, she lost to Kemp by less than 1.4 percentage points in the closest Georgia gubernatorial election in decades.

Since then, Abrams has focused on tackling voter suppression with her Fair Fight foundation, that helped register 800,000 eligible voters across the state.

Georgia has become a political battleground as the state's long history of Republican victories has been contested by Democrats winning the state Senate last year and gaining the majority presidential vote for the first time since 1992.

Gov. Kemp's campaign manager, Bobby Saparow, released a statement saying, "Stacey Abrams is now planning to use hardworking Georgians as her stepping stone to even more money and power. Governor Kemp is in the fight to put Georgians first and keep Stacey Abrams' radical ideas from destroying the future of our state."

While Abrams is the only declared Democratic candidate, Kemp will be up against three other nominees for the Republican primary — local activist, Jonathan Garcia, Kandiss Taylor who ran for 2020 U.S. Senate, and former Democrat and state representative, Vernon Jones; with former U.S. Sen. David Perdue also having expressed interest in running.

Abrams has a lot of experience under her belt as she started writing speeches in high school and even became valedictorian. She went on to study political science, economics and sociology at Spelman College and worked in the youth services department of the Atlanta mayor. After that she graduated from Yale Law School and eventually started her political career as Atlanta's deputy city attorney, leading her to her position in the House of Representatives.

“If our Georgia is going to move to its next and greatest chapter, we are going to need leadership. Leadership that knows how to do the job. Leadership that doesn’t take credit without also taking responsibility. Leadership that works hard. Leadership that measures progress not by stats but by our ability for everyone to move up and thrive. Leadership that understands the true pain folks are feeling and has real plans. That’s the job of Governor," said Abrams.

Follow @Megwiththenews

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