Today’s highly-anticipated Georgia Senate runoff race has set up a potentially exciting new development in the state’s politics.
Experts note that while neither Republican Gov. Brian Kemp nor Democratic star-activist Stacey Abrams is on the ballot, their joint presence looms over the entire race.
Kemp will be up for reelection in 2022, and Politico is reporting that Abrams is already gearing up for a rematch with the beleaguered governor. The results of today’s Georgia Senate runoff, which pits the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff against GOP incumbent senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, will demonstrate if Abrams’ yearlong Fair Fight campaign can continue to keep the state blue — or, at least, turn it purple.
“Think about how far we’ve come in the South: the most competitive battleground state in the country,” Ossoff told Politico. “Two runoff elections will determine control of the United States Senate. “Think about how far we’ve come.”
Read More: Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler will object to certification of Biden win
Abrams must be worrying some in power circles: In Georgia Monday night, Donald Trump referenced her in his final campaign speech as president.
“Stacey Abrams,” he said to jeers from the mostly-maskless crowd of hundreds gathered at Dalton Regional Airport. “What’s with this Stacey Abrams? Your governor and your secretary of state, they’re petrified of Stacey Abrams. What’s that all about? Did you see this consent decree they signed? With signature verification? You can forget about it. What they have done to your state, most people have no idea. That consent decree, these two people … they say they’re Republican, but I don’t know.”
Abrams lost her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race against Kemp, where he, as its secretary of state, was in charge of its elections.
Read More: Trump beefs with Georgia Republican officials amid election drama
Since founding her Fair Fight political action group, Abrams has promoted fair elections in Georgia and around the country. She has been directly credited with the phenomenal groundwork that helped flip the state to blue for the first time since 1992.
“I absolutely believe we’ve got a shot at every statewide office in 2022,” Athens’ Democratic Mayor Kelly Girtz told Politico. “That would have been true already, given the strength of the candidates we’re going to have on the ballot. But it doesn’t hurt that Trump is continuing to kick sand in everybody’s face.”
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