Stacey Abrams launches bid for Georgia governor

Stacey Abrams did what she was expected to do: She announced in a video that she’s running for governor.

It seemed likely ever since the Democrat lost the 2018 race to Republican Brian Kemp by less than 1.4 percentage points, the tightest contest Georgia had seen for the Governor’s Mansion in decades.

She said then that she would not concede, although she did acknowledge that

Kemp would be “certified as the victor.”

Abrams has been busy ever since.

First, she formed Fair Fight, a voting rights group and potent fundraiser that has collected more than $100 million since its inception in 2018. It recently hit the airwaves with an attack on Kemp’s refusal to expand Medicaid.

Here are a few other additions to her résumé:

■ She gave the response to then-President Donald Trump’s State of the Union in 2019.

■ She was considered a potential running mate for Joe Biden.

■ She established and expanded a media platform with lucrative book and movie projects and set out on a national tour that just wrapped up.

Abrams also took care of a matter that became an issue in the 2018 campaign. She paid off the roughly $54,000 she owed to the Internal Revenue Service, along with other credit card and student loan debt.

In her announcement, Abrams appeared to be test-driving a new “one Georgia” theme.

“Regardless of the pandemic or the storms, the obstacles in our way or the forces determined to divide us, my job has been to just put my head down and keep working toward one Georgia,” she said. “Because in the end, we are one Georgia.”

Now it’s up to Kemp to see whether there’s a rematch in 2022. He has to get through the GOP primary.

At the moment, his most serious declared challenger on the GOP side is former state Rep. Vernon Jones, a onetime Democrat.

But a potentially bigger threat exists. Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue is weighing a challenge, and while he has said nothing publicly about running, the noises coming from within his circle indicate a campaign machine is warming up its engine. If Perdue runs, he’ll certainly have an endorsement the governor can’t get: one from former President Donald Trump, who has been feuding with Kemp while remaining popular with the state’s Republican base.

Stacey Abrams