Columbus, Georgia — Four years ago, the Democratic Party of Georgia was contested in the gubernatorial primary. This was because conservatives in the party didn’t believe Stacey Abrams. She routed their alternatives and narrowly lost the general election, establishing her as the de facto party leader in the newly discovered battleground state.
Joe Biden heralds 2020 when Georgia puts Georgia on Democratic presidential line for first time in 28 years, Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff quickly win Senate seats, giving Democrats control of Capitol Hill did.
Now, Abrams and Warnock have won Democratic votes together for the first time as the Democrats look to replicate that success in tough midterm election conditions. The results will again help determine the balance of power in Washington and whether Republicans will maintain control in state governments.
“We’re going to defy all the naysayers and take back the state completely,” Abrams told delegates at the Democratic convention on Saturday. I have unfinished business.”
But Democratic leaders admit that 2022 will not be a simple repeat of the last two cycles.
In his gubernatorial rematch against Brian Kemp, Abrams is facing a well-positioned incumbent rather than the lesser-known Republican secretary of state. No longer a political newcomer, Warnock is trying to differentiate himself from the relatively unpopular president who once campaigned for him. This is the point challenger Herschel Walker is trying to insist on by criticizing Warnock as the rubber stamp of the White House.
The remaining Democratic candidates must run under the banner of the national party that dominates Washington in a time of sustained inflation and economic uncertainty. Democrats also need to reframe their turnout manipulation to comply with the tougher voting limits enacted by Kemp and the Republican-led Congress after the 2020 Democratic victory.
By embracing rather than running away from their record, Democrats portray the Republican Party as an “extremist” party that promotes outdated cultural agendas and remains a slave to former President Donald Trump. say there is
“Trump’s party is an extremist party, an election-denial party, an authoritarian party,” Lt. Gov. nominee Charlie Bailey said before the convention.
On stage Saturday, Bailey reminded delegates that Republican opponent Bart Jones was among the fake electors who signed false certificates that Trump won the state, not Biden. “If you’re going to overthrow the United States government, you’re unfit and ineligible for public office in this country,” Bailey said. “Without a doubt, democracy is on the ballot this November.”
The approach is in line with a nationwide pitch Biden made Thursday at a campaign rally in Maryland, where Biden framed voters’ choice in November as between Democrats and Trump’s “MAGA movement.” I was. fascism. “
Kemp and Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, drew praise from moderate voters for opposing Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. and others dispute the “medium” label for either man.
Before Abrams realized many women were pregnant, he credited Kemp as an “extremist” who relaxed gun-owning restrictions and signed a near-total anti-abortion law banning procedures after six weeks of gestation. criticize.
Legislator Vi Nguyen, who challenges Raffensperger, beats up the Secretary of State for his involvement in overhauling state voting procedures. Nguyen points out that Raffensperger, as a state legislator, has put together a staunchly conservative record, especially on abortion and guns.
“We can build a Georgia that believes in democracy,” Nguyen told delegates at the convention on Saturday. “You can’t gerrymander seats statewide.
Georgia Democrats say the Supreme Court’s decision to remove the constitutional right to access abortion, combined with Georgia’s near-ban, is an issue important enough to overcome swing voters’ concerns about the economy. It says there is
“I want to tell you that people are more concerned with protecting their rights and access to health care than anything else,” said Attorney General-designated state senator Jen Jordan. .
Kemp lashes out at Abrams as a liberal who “want to defend the police.” Abrams counters with a proposal to raise salaries for many law enforcement and criminal justice workers. “Brian Kemp wants you to be afraid of me,” she says in her ad.
Jordan has been outspoken about its rising crime, but Republicans have tried to cast it as the “Atlanta problem,” a GOP framework aimed at white voters outside of cities that are demographically diverse and democratically strong. I am denying an attempt to do so.
“This is not a city problem, it’s not a suburban problem. This is a Georgia problem, and the people who have been in charge have a lot to work out,” Jordan said.
In the Senate race, Warnock has largely avoided Biden, even as he embraced the Democratic legislative victory. Warnock cites the Pandemic Relief Bill and its Child Tax Credit as key aids for families in Georgia. He cites the long-desired infrastructure benefits of his package.
Senators admit gas prices and general inflation spiked, but called for a moratorium on federal gas tax, then capped insulin prices for Medicare patients with big Democratic climate and health care bill Republicans blocked his efforts to extend the cap to all consumers.
“Today we stand on this mountaintop together,” Warnock told the Democratic delegation at the convention. I will go to the valley until I hold it down.”
In 2018, Kemp edged Abrams with 55,000 out of nearly 4 million votes. Biden beat Trump with less than 12,000 out of 5 million votes. About 4.5 million Georgians voted in the simultaneous Senate runoff two months later. Warnock and Ossoff won by 2 and 1.2 percentage points respectively.
Democrats want November voter numbers to be at least as high as they were on January 5, 2021.
With that in mind, Abrams, a black woman from Atlanta who has spent a good deal of her time in rural Georgia, is mostly white, and compared her Democratic performance in previous midterm elections, to 2018. Jordan, who is white, says he grew up in a small town in southern Georgia but now represents the suburban Atlanta Senate district that was a Republican rock. Abrams sometimes campaigns with Bailey, a white man with a Southern accent and small-town Georgian roots. Nguyen says her parents fled Vietnam as political refugees.
“Standing with me is the most special ticket Georgia has ever produced,” Abrams said before addressing the convention. I know
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