ATLANTA — Speaking in her political backyard, Stacey Abrams insisted before the fifth Democratic presidential debate here Wednesday the GOP’s winning streak in presidential elections in Georgia is in jeopardy in the 2020 election.
Ms. Abrams said her near-victory in the gubernatorial race last year was more evidence of how Democrats have become more competitive in statewide contests.
“What we know is Georgia is on everyone’s mind,” Ms. Abrams told a horde of reporters gathered here for the debate. “We are a battleground state because we in a decade have closed the gap in presidential race from 8 points to 5 points in 2016 and, in my race, 1.4 points.”
“What that means is with actual real investment at the presidential level Georgia is a winnable state,” she said. “Not only can we add 16 electoral votes, we can flip two Senate seats, take the 7th [U.S. House seat], hold the 6th in our congressional district and take the statehouse.”
Then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas in 1992 was the last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential race.
Democrats, however, have long believed that demographics are destiny here in Georgia, where their increasing success at the ballot box has been attributed to increasing diversity and exploding populations in the suburbs of Atlanta once known for their conservative bent.
Ms. Abrams lost to Republican Brian Kemp by roughly 50,000 votes last year. She accused him of using his post as secretary of state to suppress the vote and she refused to officially concede in the race.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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