Stacey Abrams says governor’s race is ‘urgent moment’ for voters during Columbus stop
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams implored voters to turn out at an “urgent moment” for Columbus and Georgia, promising to expand Medicaid and veto any anti-LGBTQ legislation if she’s elected.
Abrams spoke for roughly 19 minutes Friday morning at midtown restaurant Jarfly before taking questions from audience members and reporters for roughly half an hour. Her visit wrapped a busy week in Columbus politics that saw incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and Republican senate Candidate Herschel Walker make stops in the Columbus area.
Abrams, the only Democrat in the 2022 governor’s race, is looking to avenge a narrow 2018 defeat to Kemp. Voters, she said, must “overwhelm the system” to combat recent election law changes and proposed voting bills in the state legislature.
“We are going to use the 2022 primary to test out the system to understand what it means,” she said. “This is going to exacerbate the big lie, and it’s going to make it harder and harder to recruit and retain election workers in what will likely be the single highest turnout of a midterm in Georgia history.”
Ballot access
Abrams’ visit came days after the Georgia House passed an elections bill that would empower the GBI to pursue election fraud claims, allow public inspection of paper ballots and further limit nonprofit funding of elections. It awaits passage in the Senate.
The bill builds on last year’s 98-page omnibus Georgia Election Intergrity Act to change state elections.
The law, among other things, put restrictions on the use of ballot drop boxes that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgians also have to request and return absentee ballots earlier, although early voting hours were extended in most counties across the state. A driver’s license or state ID number is needed for the absentee ballot process.
Abrams, along with Democrat organizers as well as elections experts at the Brennan Center for Justice, argue the legislation makes it harder to vote.
“We know this is designed to undermined the ability of Georgians to cast their ballots,” she said of the proposed bill.
She rejected arguments of opponents who argue that Georgia’s high turnout rate means there can’t be voter suppression.
“We have high turnout rates because we’re doing the work of trying to overwhelm the system with our presence,” she said. “Just because you have more people in the water doesn’t mean there are fewer sharks.”
Further, Abrams said language in the proposed bill about the inspection of paper ballots “seems benign” but it undermines the safety of election workers.
“Y’all have seen the public when they are unhappy,” she said. “We have election workers who are worried for the lives and worried for their safety.”
Abrams said her campaign will work hard to ensure voters have necessary resources and the grassroots organizations will meet the challenges posed by election law changes. But voters will have to do their part.
“I need us to treat May like a dress rehearsal,” she said. “In May, we need to test out these systems so we can show them what they broke. And in November, we need to overwhelm the system and show them what they are going to do next.
“I need Muscogee County to rise up,” she added. “I need southwest Georgia to rise up. I need rural Georgia to rise up. I need Georgia to rise up. ...We will win.”
Healthcare
Abrams spent large portions of Friday’s event discussing healthcare and full medicaid expansion in Georgia. Medcaid expansion is a key portion of her 2022 platform.
Georgia is one of 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid, a program that helps low-income residents gain health coverage. A bid by Kemp for a more limited expansion that includes a work requirement was rejected by the Biden Administration. Kemp sued the federal government in an effort to get the decision reversed.
Full expansion would give an estimated half a million Georgians access to health coverage, including roughly 10,000 people in Muscogee County, she said. Abrams also blamed the closure of a hospital in the rural city of Cuthbert on Kemp because he “was too mean to expand Medicaid in the state of Georgia.”
“Some states have been generous with their support,” Abrams said of Medicaid. “Georgia has been a miser. We live in a state where if you are a childless adult, no matter how much you work and how little you make, we will not help you. That is a travesty in the best of times. In the midst of a pandemic, it is an abomination.”
LGBTQ issues
Abrams also commented on a bill introduced before the end of Georgia General Assembly session that would deter teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in some private school classrooms. LGBTQ advocacy groups have called it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, comparing it to similar legislation passed in Florida.
The bill, sponsored by 10 Republican senators including the Columbus-area’s Randy Robertson, alleges that “a growing number of Georgia’s private and nonpublic schools have embraced curricula and programs based in critical theory” that has caused these schools to “segregate students, staff, and parents by ethnicity, color, race, and national origin.”
The bill also alleges teachers and staff at some private schools have “inappropriately discussed gender identity with children who have not yet reached the age of discretion.”
The proposed legislation didn’t make it out of the Senate by crossover day, meaning it won’t be considering during this session. However, the Georgia Senate did pass a bill that would effectively ban schools from allowing transgender girls from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. It’s awaiting a vote in the state house.
Abrams highlighted her past support of gay marriage in the early 2000s, and her efforts to defeat anti-LGBTQ bills as a state legislator.
“I will not only defeat it as governor. I will veto it,” she said. “I will protect the right to be who you are in the state of Georgia because we will be one Georgia rising together.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 2:26 PM.