Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat that refused to concede the 2018 election and falsely claimed victory, said Wednesday that she will launch another campaign to become the state’s governor.
Just hours later, her campaign was on the defensive because of a scathing 10-word rebuke by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-T.X.
Without serious competition in a Democratic primary, there will likely be a rematch between Abrams and incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Their 2018 contest was one of the most narrowly decided races for governor that year and was dominated by Abrams’ false claims of voter suppression.
Critics have said that Abrams’ false narrative — and the Democratic Party’s refusal to condemn them — paved the way for many of the controversial claims over the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede to President Joe Biden.
In a video announcing her candidacy, Abrams said “opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by background or access to power.”
Abrams said she would provide “leadership that knows how to do the job, leadership that doesn’t take credit without also taking responsibility, leadership that understands the true pain that folks are feeling and has real plans.”
She went on, “That’s the job of governor, to fight for one Georgia, our Georgia.”
Crenshaw shot back with just 10 words on social media…and what he said quickly went viral —
Wait I thought you said you were already the Governor https://t.co/G5AEb3hRUU
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) December 1, 2021
The 2022 governor’s race will test whether recent Democratic gains in Georgia were a one-time phenomenon driven by discomfort with Trump or whether they marked the beginning of a more consequential political shift, with Democrats moving into the economically booming South.
The Democratic loss in the Virginia’s election for governor could raise questions about whether Abrams’ straightforwardly liberal approach can be effective in a national environment currently trending against the Democrats.
Kemp said in a statement that Abrams was on a “never-ending campaign for power” in an attempt to become president, linking her to what he said was the “failed Biden agenda.”
“Her far-left agenda of open borders, gun confiscation, high taxes, and anti-law enforcement policies don’t reflect who we are as Georgians,” Kemp said.
In a state where Democrats often sought — and failed — to win power by relying on Black voters and appealing to older white moderates, Abrams ran in 2018 as an unapologetic far-left progressive. The 47-year-old Abrams supported abortion rights and embraced Medicaid expansion, something a series of Republican governors has refused to do.
Georgia remains narrowly divided, and voters often reject the president’s party in the next election. But in abandoning nods at centrism, Abrams insists Democrats can attract new voters, including transplants to the booming Atlanta area, Black voters who hadn’t participated in previous elections and younger, more liberal white voters.
A Republican victory is far from assured. Although Kemp defeated her by 1.4 percentage points, Abrams won 778,000 more votes than the previous Democrat to run for governor.
Abrams blamed “gross mismanagement” by Kemp in his role as then-secretary of state overseeing the election. She accused Kemp of using his office to aggressively purge the rolls of inactive voters, enforce an “exact match” policy for checking voters’ identities that left registrations in limbo, and otherwise tilt the outcome in his favor.
Kemp has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and no evidence of Abrams’ explosive claims have ever been provided.
After the election, Abrams started Fair Fight, a political group that has raised more than $100 million and built a statewide operation that registered hundreds of thousands of new voters in Georgia. The state saw record-breaking turnout in the 2020 presidential race and January Senate runoff elections.
Now, Abrams and Kemp look like they may face a rematch in a new political climate. For one, Kemp faces opposition from Trump and his most loyal GOP supporters for not supporting the former president’s attempt to overturn the results of the Georgia election. Election officials conducted three recounts in the state, each of which affirmed Biden’s victory.
Trump, who campaigned for Kemp in 2018, is now one of the governor’s most vocal critics. The former president held a rally in the state in September, pointedly inviting former U.S. Sen. David Perdue to run against Kemp and joking that he would prefer Abrams to the incumbent governor.
“I’ll beat her again, but it will be hard to do with Brian Kemp, because the MAGA base will just not vote for him …,” Trump said in statement. “But some good Republican will run, and some good Republican will get my endorsement, and some good Republican will WIN!”
Since the rally, Perdue has privately consulted with leading Republicans about a possible bid and suggested in a radio interview last month that “a lot of people feel like that people in power … caved in to a lot of things back in 2020 that didn’t have to be done,” a reference to Kemp’s refusal to overturn Biden’s Georgia victory.
Kemp’s disavowal of problems in Georgia’s election results did not stop him from pushing through voting integrity laws in response to Trump’s criticisms.
Abrams has used voting integrity concerns to mobilize Democrats with conspiracy theories, telling The Associated Press in April that “Republicans are gaming the system because they’re afraid of losing an election.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have tried to use Abrams to galvanize their own voters. Earlier this year, Kemp allies preemptively formed a group called Stop Stacey, aimed specifically at stopping her from winning the governorship in 2022.
Abrams faces vulnerabilities on several fronts. Her national stature could raise questions that she’s more interested in higher office than in running Georgia. Republicans tried to blame her for Major League Baseball’s decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta last year over backlash to the voting integrity law.
Moving forward, she is part of a growing contingent of Black women seeking statewide office.
Democrat Deirdre DeJear is running for governor in Iowa. In Florida, Democratic Rep. Val Demings is running for Senate. In North Carolina, former state Sen. Erica Smith and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley are competing in the Democratic primary for Senate.
And in Virginia, Winsome Sears was elected lieutenant governor as a Republican.
But none of them enjoy the national stature or command praise from the mainstream media like Abrams.
Since 2018, Abrams was named to Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She was featured in Vogue and interviewed on a podcast by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. She wrote two books, including a legal thriller. She conducted a 12-city speaking tour. She considered a run for president in 2020 before deciding against it. And when Biden became the nominee, she openly lobbied to be his running mate, a position that went to Kamala Harris.
The Horn News and the Associated Press contributed to this article.