Four years ago, former President Barack Obama gave Stacey Abrams a crucial boost days before the midterm vote. She welcomed the nation’s first Black president back to Atlanta on Friday before a raucous crowd of thousands of supporters.
Abrams reminded the crowd of her work to boost turnout after her narrow defeat in 2018 that helped lay the groundwork for President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and the runoff sweeps by U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock that flipped control of the chamber.
“In 2018, I stood for this job and while my application was not fully accepted, I spent the past four years believing in the possibility of Georgia,” she said, her voice hoarse with strain. “And because you believed with me, because you worked with me, we sent Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden to office.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
She also used her remarks to pummel Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican who defeated her in that 2018 contest.
“For the last 20 years, men like Brian Kemp have tried to convince us that we have a poverty of resources. But I know the answer. It’s not a poverty of resources. It’s a poverty of leadership. And we just struck it rich.”
She touted a “diverse ticket that looks like Georgia” on the Democratic ledger and a surplus of more than $6.6 billion that she has proposed using to enact generational changes. Among her vows: She would expand Medicaid, raise teacher salaries and finance new higher education scholarships.
“And I’ll tell y’all a secret. We can do all of this without raising a dime in taxes. All we have to do is raise our expectations and change our leadership.”
Abrams likened herself to the “Maynard Jackson of Georgia,” invoking Atlanta’s first Black mayor.
“I will fight for women’s rights because it took a man to break the promise of Georgians. It’s going to take a woman to make it right.”
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