Kemp, however, faces a major challenge after facing the wrath of former President Donald Trump, who became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia since President George HW Bush in 1992. The former Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) Is considering applying Kemp next spring.

Despite his loss in 2018, Abrams’ national profile has only grown to become one of the country’s most prominent Democrats. The work of her and her group, Fair Fight, has been credited by Democrats with helping topple the state, both with President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in 2020 and second-round victories now- Sense. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock earlier this year.

Georgia will once again be one of the focal points of US politics in 2022. Besides the gubernatorial race, Warnock is also running for a full term in the Senate, and the running secretary of state is expected to garner historic attention.

Abrams’ launch video features his candidacy as a person to lead an evolving Georgia, calling for “a leadership that understands the real pain people feel and has real plans.” The video has promoted her work since the 2018 election, with Abrams claiming that she has paid off Georgians’ medical debt and helped fund small businesses.

Kemp greeted her potential rival in the race saying she would just use the desk as a stepping stone. “Stacey’s never-ending campaign for power has already hurt Georgian businesses and cost our state millions – all in service of her ultimate ambition to become President of the United States,” he said in a statement. . “The election of the governor next November is a battle for the soul of our state. I’m fighting Stacey Abrams, Biden’s failed agenda, and their awakened allies to keep Georgia the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

But before the two face off next November, Kemp must win his primary. Trump relentlessly attacked Kemp, furious that Kemp had not used his governorship to help overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The former president has targeted Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for similar reasons.

However, Kemp has yet to attract a challenger with enough firepower to gain Trump’s approval. Former State Representative Vernon Jones, a former Democratic lawmaker who switched parties and wholeheartedly embraced Trump’s conspiracy theories of the 2020 election, is in the primary but did not gain support from Trump.

Instead, Trump’s team attempted to woo Perdue, who lost to Ossoff last year, to challenge Kemp.

“We have a divided party in Georgia right now,” Perdue told a local radio station last month, obliquely attacking Kemp for “cav[ing] in a lot of things in 2020 that didn’t have to be done.

“Bonnie and I are praying for our condition. I am concerned about the state of our state, ”he continued, without mentioning the name of the governor in office.

Raffensperger already has a Trump-backed main challenger in the Rep race. Jody Hice (R-Ga.).

Regardless of Trump’s involvement in the primary, the Republican Governors Association has previously said it will support Kemp. “We defeated her once (although she didn’t admit it) and we will do it again,” RGA executive director Dave Rexrode tweeted after Abrams’ announcement. The RGA is “all-in to re-elect [Kemp] and keep GA in the right direction.

In 2018, Abrams said she “recognizes[d]”that Kemp was the governor, but said she was not giving a” concession speech, “alleging that Kemp – then Secretary of State – had used her office to suppress votes, with Fair Fight filing a broad lawsuit challenging a much of the state election procedures.

At the time, Kemp announced he was investigating the state’s Democratic Party for attempting to hack the state’s voter registration system days before the election, charges investigators said. years later that there was no supporting evidence.

This Fair Fight lawsuit could go to trial early next year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, but a series of court rulings have narrowed the scope of the lawsuit.

The National Democrats also immediately backed Abrams’ candidacy for a rematch with Kemp. “Abrams had come close to Brian Kemp already in 2018 – before she mobilized millions of Democrats to turn Georgia blue in 2020,” said Noam Lee, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, in a statement. communicated. “Now more than ever, it is clear that Brian Kemp’s days as governor are numbered.”

Abrams’ entry into the race also energized the dozens of field organizers in Georgia. Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, an Abrams group founded in 2014 to mobilize Georgian voters, said the organization plans to immediately start working to energize midterm voters on its behalf, adding that the management by Kemp’s pandemic and Republicans ‘policies in Washington, DC, will further fuel Democrats’ willingness to participate next year.

“There is another opportunity to talk about the Georgia we want to live in,” she said. “When you think of the broad coalition of supporters Abrams enjoyed [in 2018], this absolutely includes people looking for that second bite of an apple. “