ATLANTA — Stacey Abrams will advance to Georgia’s general election after running unopposed in the state’s Democratic primary.
Ms. Abrams, a 48-year-old attorney who served as the minority leader of the Georgia state house for six years, last ran against then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp in 2018 in a bitter race that propelled her to national stardom in Democratic politics.
Ms. Abrams’ victory was mentioned Tuesday night by The Associated Press.
In 2018, her campaign emphasized reaching out to infrequent, rural, and black voters over independent white suburbanites. She lost to Mr Kemp by less than 55,000 votes – a gap she largely blamed on what she described as Mr Kemp’s role as “the referee, the contestant and the teller”, as he was both a candidate in a statewide race and the state’s highest-ranking election official.
Her current campaign draws largely from the same script it used during the last race for governor, and continued to target voters who have not been so widely courted in previous election cycles. So far, she has avoided her selective theme, voting rights, in most campaign stub speeches and ads, choosing to discuss Georgia-specific policy issues.
In a recent television commercial, she highlights her political and business credentials to underline her qualifications, describing the governor’s job as “the executive branch of the state.”
After the 2018 election, Ms. Abrams founded the voter advocacy group Fair Fight, which has raised more than $100 million. The work of Mrs. Abrams through Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project, a voter mobilization organization she founded four years earlier, helped Democrats penetrate top Georgia races, including Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. 2020 and the wins of two Democratic senators in 2021.
Abrams’ 2022 campaign will feature many of the same issues that are at play in 2018: Medicaid expansion, economic relief, and voter protection. She remains a hallmark of several Georgian Republican assault ads, as conservatives in the ballot have sought to characterize her as a far-left, power-hungry figure who would push state policies backed by National Democrats.
Still, Ms. Abrams remains one of the most prolific fundraisers in both Georgia and Democratic politics, surpassing her Republican opponents. She has raised more than $21 million since announcing her re-election bid in December. In early May, she halted her fundraising efforts to transfer funds to women’s health clinics and organizations that support access to abortion.