For Stacey Abrams, everything is different this time. Unlike her first campaign for Georgia governor in 2018, she enters Tuesday’s primary election as the presumptive Democratic nominee, facing no competition. She’s not the relatively unknown former state representative from the first campaign, but a leading advocate for voting rights, someone credited with laying the organizational groundwork for Joe Biden to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in 28 years. But the same dynamics that lifted Abrams to national prominence four years ago could be a vulnerability in the general election in November. With her rise, she has become a millionaire, something Republicans have highlighted to portray her as out of touch, even though both leading GOP candidates for governor are far wealthier. Donald Trump, who drove suburban moderates like those around Atlanta away from the GOP, is no longer in the White House. Instead, Biden is confronting the lowest approval numbers of his presidency, alarming Democrats who fear he could drag down candidates across the country. If she’s elected, the 48-year-old Abrams would make history as the first Black woman to lead a state. But to get there, she must tap into the energy that contributed to her rise while averting the newer crosscurrents that could work against her. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it: We have fundamental headwinds,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ campaign manager. “We have a whole history where Democrats have trouble winning in midterms.” Abrams’ fate could hinge on whom Republicans choose as their nominee on Tuesday. If they side with incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, the race would be a rematch of the bitter 2018 campaign, which Abrams lost by 1.4 percentage points. She was defiant at the time, acknowledging Kemp as the victor but refusing to concede the race, citing “gross mismanagement” in his role as secretary of state overseeing the election. If Kemp is the nominee, he would again have the advantage of incumbency in a powerful office. He has shoved rafts of legislation through a GOP-led General Assembly and is unveiling big economic developments, like a $5.5 billion, 8,100-job Hyundai Motor plant that he announced near Savannah on Friday. Polls so far this year show a close race, with Kemp narrowly ahead if he is the nominee. In 2018, polls usually found the race about tied, although little polling had been done this early that year, reflecting a national political establishment that didn’t believe Abrams could win. Abrams and other Democrats say they’ll be ready if David Perdue wins the GOP nomination. Trump personally recruited the former U.S. senator to challenge Kemp after the incumbent governor refused to go along with Trump’s push to overturn election results in Georgia. But Abrams is eager to attack Kemp, with Groh-Wargo noting Kemp is now an incumbent with a record and saying “his record is pretty out of step with Georgia voters.” Those attacks can be lacerating. At a Democratic dinner on Saturday in suburban Gwinnett County, Abrams proclaimed that “I am tired of hearing about being the the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live.” Republicans pounced on the remark Sunday, a likelihood Abrams acknowledged even as she delivered it, saying “let me contextualize” and saying that when Georgia has dismal […]

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