Less than a week before the election, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appears poised to win a second term.
His opponent, former state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, has not been able to gain traction despite strong financial support from out of state and a national following so enthusiastic she was talked up as Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.
Abrams, who lost to Kemp in 2018, has never caught up to him in the polls, and he’s inched further ahead. After two debates with Abrams, the most recent on Oct. 30, Kemp shows a 7.6 percent lead in Real Clear Politics’ polling average.
Abrams ramped up her attacks in the second debate. Like many Democratic candidates, she’s pounded her support of abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade.
On Sunday night, Abrams attacked “men” for having any involvement at all in abortion policy and Kemp for being supported by “a good old boy network” of “107 county sheriffs who want to take black people off the streets.” She has made voting rights a race issue as well, attacking Kemp’s work both as governor and previously as Georgia Secretary of State to purge voter rolls of people who have died or moved and to tighten up absentee ballot procedures.
Kemp didn’t take the bait. Record early voting numbers show the state isn’t keeping minorities or anyone else from voting, he said.
He has relentlessly touted his reopening of the state economy and schools early in the pandemic. He has said the state could bank federal grants because reopened businesses and employees getting paychecks again didn’t need as much help. He has reminded the public of the state’s tax rebates and says he'll do more of the same if reelected.
Some analysts say Abrams’ candidacy has lagged because she is too progressive, while a moderate candidate might be better suited for Georgia.
Kemp may also have benefited from his show of independence from former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election controversy in Georgia. Trump backed former Sen. David Perdue in this year’s primary against Kemp, but Kemp whipped Perdue by a 3 to 1 margin.
Marci McCarthy, chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Party in metro Atlanta, told The Epoch Times a split in the Georgia party, possible in the wake of 2020, hasn’t materialized. She said that moderate Republicans turned off by the contentiousness of that election seem to be returning to the fold.
“They’re going to come home,” she said, because their values align more closely with Republican ones, and polls show independents trending Republican as well.
Among them are white suburban women, 20 percent of the national electorate. A New York Times/Siena poll of that demographic showed a dramatic 26-point shift nationally toward Republicans since August, and a Wall Street Journal poll released this week similarly showed a 27 percent shift. McCarthy said it is because concerns for their families over the economy, schools, and crime, outweigh their concerns about abortion policy, which may or may not affect them personally.
First-ring Atlanta suburbs like Dunwoody, Brookhaven, and Chamblee are turning northern DeKalb County “a red shade of purple,” McCarthy said.
That’s good news for the GOP after an estimated 100,000 Republican voters stayed home rather than vote in the Jan. 5, 2021, runoff election that saw Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock oust incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Both candidates have bus tours planned this week.
