Stacey Abrams Announces Georgia Gubernatorial Campaign

ATLANTA — Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams announced on Wednesday she will again run for governor in 2022.

Abrams previously sought to become Georgia’s first Black female governor in 2018 when she lost to current Gov. Brian Kemp. That election came down to the wire but Abrams ultimately conceded defeat by a margin of fewer than 60,000 votes. Kemp was found to have violated the Help America Vote Act as secretary of state in the lead-up to the election by purging voting rolls of hundreds of thousands of registered voters.

In her concession speech in 2018, Abrams announced the creation of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights nonprofit organization that ultimately sued Kemp for voter suppression. Abrams would go on to become the first Black woman and Georgian to deliver the response to the State of the Union address in February 2019 and was one of the speakers selected to jointly deliver the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

“I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my life and for the past four years, when the hardest times hit us all, I’ve worked to do my part to help families make it through,” Abrams said in her campaign announcement video posted to her social media accounts. “Paying off medical debt for 68,000 Georgians, expanding access to vaccines, bringing supplies to overwhelmed food banks, lending a hand across our state, especially in rural Georgia. We helped finance small businesses trying to stay afloat, and I spoke up for families being left behind.”

In the video, Abrams would go on to say that while her occupation has changed, the values of Georgians have not. The video also debuts her campaign slogan, “One Georgia,” indicative of the unifying message that has inspired her to run again for the office.

Abrams has gone on to become a national figure for voting rights and was on President Joe Biden’s shortlist of candidates for running mate during the 2020 presidential election. Her work in establishing an estimated 800,000 new voter registrations gained her national recognition in helping turn Georgia for Biden in the election, as well as setting the stage for Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in their respective election victories.

Abrams previously served as deputy city attorney for the city of Atlanta and received her Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, before she received her Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctor from Yale University. She served as minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017 before winning her party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2018.

Her platform consists of priorities including Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform, expanded gun control laws, an increase in public education spending and opposition to stricter voter ID laws. Abrams’ announcement is likely to trigger a rematch against Kemp in Nov. 2022, who faces primary challenges from former state Rep. Vernon Jones, activist Jonathan Garcia and educator Kandiss Taylor, who was a U.S. Senate candidate in 2020.

“If our Georgia is going to move to its next and greatest chapter, we are going to need leadership,” Abrams said in the announcement. “Leadership that knows how to do the job. Leadership that doesn’t take credit without also taking responsibility. Leadership that understands the true pain folks are feeling and has real plans.” 

Reece can be reached at [email protected]