Stacey Abrams announces 2022 campaign for Georgia governor

Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost to Brian Kemp in the 2018 campaign for Georgia governor, said Wednesday she’s seeking the same office in 2022.

Abrams, a Democratic former state representative from Atlanta, announced on her Twitter account that “I’m running for Governor because opportunity in our state shouldn’t be determined by zip code, background or access to power.”

The Tweet included a link for donations to her campaign and a video that referenced Medicaid expansion, access to COVID-19 vaccines, cleaning up from storm damage and reviving small businesses.

“In the end, we are one Georgia,” Abrams narrates in the video, “regardless of the pandemic or the storms, the obstacles in our way or the forces determined to divide us.

“My job has been to keep my head down and keep working toward one Georgia. . . If our Georgia is going to move to its next chapter, we’re going to need leadership.”

Abrams is the first Democrat to announce for governor, and she’ll be headlining her party’s efforts to win more statewide offices after Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff unseated GOP U.S. Senate incumbents earlier this year.

Warnock is seeking a full six-year term in 2022, but the emergence of Abrams—who’s become a Democratic fundraising, voting-rights and candidate recruiting powerhouse—will also generate national attention.

Republicans hold all other statewide offices in Georgia, including governor.

Kemp has not formally declared he’s seeking a second term. Vernon Jones, a former Democratic state legislator from DeKalb County, has announced his campaign in the Republican primary.

Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue also is considering a GOP run for governor.

Abrams lost to Kemp in 2018 by less than 1.5 percent of the vote and never formally conceded, claiming that voting access was curtailed for many Georgians.

She launched a voting-rights and access organization, called Fair Fight, that also advocates for such issues as Medicaid expansion and medical debt relief.

Fair Fight also has filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia Attorney General’s office and the Georgia Board of Elections over voting rights that is expected to go to trial in February.

Abrams won Cobb County in an election in which local Democrats made incursions in the Republican stronghold of East Cobb.

In 2020, Democrats gained control of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, while Republicans held on to a slight majority on the Cobb Board of Education.

Among the Democrats who won local office in 2018 is Charisse Davis, who defeated GOP incumbent Scott Sweeney for Post 6 on the Cobb school board, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

Davis has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election; the Cobb legislative delegation will be conducting reapportionment for school board posts and county commission districts in January.

Amy Henry, the mother of four students in the Walton cluster, is running for Post 6 as a Republican.

Formal qualifying for 2022 elections takes place in March, with party primaries scheduled for May.

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