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The Georgia Democrats are hoping that two of their party’s best-known faces in the Peach State, Stacey Abrams and Senator Raphael Warnock, will build on previous successes in the upcoming midterm elections in November.
In 2018, Abrams overwhelmingly won the Democratic primary and finished second in the general election to Republican Brian Kemp by less than two percentage points in a contest that many believe saw her rediscovering herself as the de facto party leader in a battlefield state established.
Two years later, Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Georgia in nearly 30 years, and Democratic Senate nominees Warnock and Jon Ossoff were both elected to the United States Senate the next month.
Now, for the first time, Abrams and Warnock jointly lead the Democratic ticket as the party seeks to repeat its success in a troubled midterm election landscape. The result will again help determine the balance of power in Washington and whether Republicans retain their dominance in state government.
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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Raphael Warnock bumps elbows with Stacey Abrams during a campaign rally with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden at Pullman Yard December 15, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Georgia is a blue state,” party leader Nikema Williams said at the state convention in Columbus on Saturday. “Together we will defy the odds, getting bluer with each cycle and taking our state to greater heights.”
But Williams and others acknowledge that 2022 is not a simple repeat of the last two cycles.
Abrams is up against not a little-known Republican secretary of state, but a well-placed incumbent in their governor’s rematch against Brian Kemp.
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Warnock, no longer a political novice, is trying to differentiate himself from an unpopular president who once campaigned for him. That’s a point that challenger Herschel Walker keeps trying to emphasize, criticizing Warnock as a White House stamp.
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 10: Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearings
(Photo by Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)
In 2018, Kemp surpassed Abrams with 55,000 votes out of about 4 million votes cast. Biden overtook Trump by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million votes cast. In simultaneous runoff elections in the Senate two months later, around 4.5 million Georgians voted; Warnock and Ossoff won by 2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points, respectively.
Democrats are hoping November’s voter count will be at least as large as it was on Jan. 5, 2021. Georgia needs a majority to win statewide office, and Libertarian candidates can draw enough to force a runoff.
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Republican Senator Ted Cruz recently told Fox News Digital that Republican turnout in Georgia’s 2021 Senate special election was “depressed,” causing the seat to turn blue, but he predicted GOP voters this year would not vote Will stay home after the “damage is done”. Country from Georgia with two Democratic Senators who arrived as stamps for the Angry Socialist Caucus in the Democratic Party.
Democratic Republic of Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is seen before a rally in Reynolds, Georgia June 4, 2022 as she campaigns against incumbent Governor Brain Kemp (R-GA).
(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Having a Democratic senator trying to get reelected when the president is at -20 or -30 in the state at the top of the ticket isn’t easy,” the senator said, adding he believes Georgia has “a top-notch.” Opportunity to pick up,” while Warnock is running further left than his state’s temperament.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a Fox News writer. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
