Abrams: Georgia is 'the battleground state'

ATLANTA - With four months to go until Election Day, Georgia Democrats say the numbers are on their side.

"We know that Georgia is not simply a battleground state, but we are the battleground state," said Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor in 2018.

Abrams lost that race to Gov. Brian Kemp by less than 55,000 votes.  

Since then, her Political Action Committee, Fair Fight, said three-quarters of a million Georgians have registered to vote.  

"The numbers tell the story.  The numbers tell us that in 2016, we had a pretty strong turnout in our Democratic primary, but the numbers in 2020 were up 61%," said Abrams.  "We have had more than 750,000 new people register to vote in the state of Georgia--new registrants--since 2018 and if you at the breakdown, 45% of them are under the age of 30 and 49% are people of color and these are populations that tend towards Democrats."  

Abrams shared those figures during a virtual news conference Monday morning with her preferred U.S. Senate candidates--Jon Ossoff, who hopes to unseat incumbent Republican David Perdue and Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is one of a slate of Democrats and Republicans challenging Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Georgia, in the November "jungle primary."  

"There is a real movement happening and I think it mirrors what's going on in the country," said Warnock.

President Donald Trump's campaign was quick to fire back at the Democrats.

“Democrats like Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, and Jon Ossoff can say whatever they want to try to ‘flip the state.’ The fact of the matter is that it isn’t happening. Georgians want nothing to do with increasingly-radical Democrat politicians who seek to defund their police forces, raise their taxes and institute their liberal, job-killing agenda," said Trump Victory Spokesperson Danielle Alvarez.  

Abrams, however, pointed out that Trump started running campaign advertising in Georgia this week, which she said is a sign Republicans are concerned.

"Republicans are whispering in corners and sending up smoke signals telling one another that they are in trouble here in Georgia and that is no more evident than the fact that Donald Trump put up $457,000 in advertising in the state of Georgia in June," said Abrams.  "When is the last time a presidential candidate--a Republican--had to advertise in Georgia at all?  Let alone in June of an election year?"

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.