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Columbus, Ga. (AP) – Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a primary race for governor because the party’s old guard didn’t trust Staci Abrams. She defeated their options and established herself as the party chief in the newly formed state on the battlefield.
That was previewed in 2020, when Joe Biden put Georgia in the Democratic presidential column for the first time in 28 years, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff soon held Senate seats, giving Democrats control of Capitol Hill.
Now Abrams and Warnock have topped the Democratic ticket for the first time as the party tries to repeat its success in a difficult midterm election landscape.. The result will help redefine the balance of power in Washington and Republicans’ dominance in state government.
“We will defy all opposition and take back our state,” Abrams told delegates to the Democratic State Convention on Saturday. “Democrats of Georgia, we have unfinished business to take care of.
But Democratic leaders acknowledge that 2022 will not be an easy replay of the past two cycles.
Abrams, in her rematch with Gov. Brian Kemp, is not running against a more popular Republican secretary of state, but a well-established incumbent. Warnock, no longer a political newcomer, is trying to distance himself from the relatively unpopular president who once campaigned for him. It’s a point that rival Herschel Walker has been relentless in criticizing Warnock as a rubber stamp for the White House.
The rest of the Democratic ticket must run under the banner of the National Party, which controls Washington amid persistently high inflation and an uncertain economy. And Democrats will have to retool their voter turnout efforts to comply with strict voting restrictions imposed by Kemp and the Republican-led Legislature after Democrats’ 2020 victories.
The response, Democrats say, is portraying Republicans as an “extremist” party that has a strong affinity with former President Donald Trump.
“The party of Trump is the party of extremism, it’s the party that denies elections, it’s the party of tyranny,” Lt. Governor Charlie Bailey said ahead of the rally.
On stage Saturday, Bailey recalled that his GOP rival, Burt Jones, was among the fake voters who signed fake certificates saying Biden, not Trump, had won their states. “If you’re going to overthrow the government of the United States, you’re not fit, you’re not fit to hold any office in this country,” Bailey said. “Make no mistake, this November democracy is at the polls.”
The approach echoes the nationalism Biden delivered at a campaign rally in Maryland on Thursday.He described the November voter turnout between Democrats and Trump’s “MAGA” as akin to “semi-fascism” of the GOP mainstream.
Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Republican Brad Raffensperger drew praise from moderate voters. Supporting Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election. But Abrams and others resist the “moderate” label for either man.
Abrams criticized Kemp as a “radical” who signed gun restrictions and sweeping abortion laws that ban the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy before most women know they’re pregnant.
Nguyen Nguyen, a lawmaker challenging Raffensperger, hammered the secretary of state on revamping the state’s voting procedures. Nguyen noted that Raffensperger has compiled a strong conservative record as a state legislator on abortion and guns, as well as on other issues.
“We can build a Georgia where we believe in democracy,” Nguyen told convention delegates on Saturday. “You can’t dictate statewide seats.”
Georgia Democrats say the Supreme Court decision removes the constitutional right to access the fetus.Coupled with Georgia’s imminent ban, it’s a critical enough issue to overcome voters’ worries about the volatile economy.
“I can tell you that people are more concerned about their rights and their health care than anything else,” said Jane Jordan, a candidate for state senator and attorney general who has made supporting abortion rights a centerpiece of her bid. .
Kemp denounced Abrams as a liberal who wanted to “protect police funding.” Abrams proposed raising wages for many law enforcement and criminal justice workers. “Brian Kemp wants you to be afraid of me,” she says in one of her commercials.
Jordan has been vocal about crime but has dismissed Republican efforts to call it “Atlanta’s problem” — a GOP frame aimed at white voters beyond the demographically diverse and overwhelmingly Democratic city.
“It’s not an urban problem or a suburban problem. It’s Georgia’s problem, and the people in charge have a lot to answer for,” Jordan said.
In the Senate campaign, Warnock distanced himself from BidenWhile acknowledging Democrats’ legislative victories. Warnock cited the epidemic relief bill and the child tax credit as critical help for Georgia families. He cites the benefits of the long-sought infrastructure package.
The senator acknowledged the rise in gas prices and overall inflation, but called for a federal gas tax freeze and then defeated a provision in the Democrats’ big climate and health care law that would cover the cost of insulin for Medicare patients. . Republicans blocked efforts to extend coverage to all consumers.
“Today we stand together at the top of this mountain,” Warnock told Democratic delegates at their convention. Until we lower the cost of insulin for all Georgians, we will march down the valley tomorrow.
In the year In 2018, Kemp topped Abrams by 55,000 votes out of 4 million polls. Biden trailed Trump by less than 12,000 of the 5 million votes cast. In the final Senate race two months later, 4.5 million Georgians voted. Warnock and Ossoff won by 2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points.
Democrats are hoping November voters will at least say it by January 5, 2021. Georgia needs a majority to win statewide office, and Libertarian candidates could draw enough to force a runoff.
With this in mind, Abrams, a black woman from Atlanta, spent a lot of time in rural, mostly white Georgia. Compared to Democrats’ performance in the first half of 2018. Jordan, who is white, said she grew up in a small town in south Georgia but now represents a suburban Atlanta state Senate district that used to be a Republican lock. Abrams sometimes campaigns alongside Bailey, a white man with a Southern accent and small-town Georgia roots. Nguyen says her parents fled Vietnam as political refugees.
“Standing with me is the greatest ticket that Georgia has,” Abrams said before speaking at the convention. “He looks like Georgia; he looks like Georgia; he knows Georgia.”
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For full coverage of the midterms, follow AP at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections And on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics.
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