Tipsheet

Here We Go Again: Stacey Abrams Is Running for Governor of Georgia in 2022

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 01, 2021 6:00 PM

Failed 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate and election denier Stacey Abrams made it official on Wednesday afternoon: she is once more running for governor in what could potentially be a rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican who defeated her in 2018.

Abrams made the announcement over Twitter in a campaign video.

Gov. Kemp won the election with 50.2 percent of the vote, compared to Abrams' 48.8 percent, though the latter never formally conceded the election. Abrams had tried but failed to come up with enough votes for a recount.

While campaigning for fellow Democrat Terry McAuliffe throughout Virginia, Abrams and McAuliffe further propagated their own versions of the 'Big Lie,' including to do with the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election.

McAuliffe and Abrams' comments were concerning enough that Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called them out in an October 21 piece for RealClearPolitics (RCP), "The Danger of the McAuliffe-Abrams Stolen Election Claims."

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As Raffensperger wrote in his RCP piece:

Since November 2018, Abrams has alleged repeatedly that her election was “stolen.” She filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s elections officials that continues to this day, though a federal judge appointed by President Obama has thrown out the most headline-generating allegations. She has raised millions of dollars off of her stolen election claims and has since built a national profile based on lies about the integrity of Georgia’s elections. She has referred to Republicans as domestic enemies.

There were further issues in how Abrams campaigned for McAuliffe in that she and Vice President Kamala Harris both separately appear to have violated IRS compliance rules. They actively encouraged parishioners to vote for McAuliffe in video messages played at churches.

McAuliffe went on to be defeated by his Republican opponent, the now Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin, in a vote of 50.8 percent to McAuliffe's 48.4 percent. 

Abrams has come under fire this year for railing against Georgia's election integrity law signed by Gov. Kemp in March. As a result of the law's passage, Major League Baseball (MLB) pulled the July 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta and moved it to Colorado, which actually has some more restrictive voting laws than Georgia, costing the county an estimated $100 million in revenue. The Atlanta Braves nevertheless went on to win the World Series last month. 

In his reporting for The Hill, Max Greenwood noted that "with Abrams’s announcement on Wednesday, it’s unlikely that any other candidate will seek the party’s nomination." 

Gov. Kemp has earned a primary challenger, former State Rep. Vernon Jones, and the word is that former Sen. David Perdue may mount a primary challenge as well. 

Both Kemp and Jones have responded to Abrams entering the race over Twitter with a series of tweets and retweets.