Today marks 15 days since the fraught midterm elections of 2018. Though the race was not decided that night, on November 16th Stacey Abrams officially ended her run for governor against Brian Kemp, who will serve as the 83rd Governor of Georgia beginning on January 14th.
However, even though the Abrams campaign did not achieve total victory in this election cycle, her accomplishments this year are beyond question. She came out of Election Day just 1.4% behind Kemp. For reference, Jason Carter lost to Governor Nathan Deal in 2014 by 8% and Roy Barnes lost to Deal in 2010 by 10%. Abrams also received approximately 1,923,000 votes, which is over 550,000 more votes than Deal received in either of his elections and over 40,000 more than even Hillary Clinton received in 2016. Abrams can and should take a great deal of pride in mobilizing Democrats in a way this state has never seen in its long history.
She also led the charge in helping Democrats win the greatest number of seats in the Georgia State Legislature in the last 20 years. Thanks in part to her strong, progressive message and ability to drive enthusiasm, Democrats managed to win two new senate seats and 14 new house seats. There was a shift in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District as well, with Democrat Lucy McBath winning a narrow victory over incumbent Karen Handel. McBath seized the newfound energy in the suburbs and coupled it with a focused campaign to flip a seat that some had written off after last year’s special election. Additionally, in the 7th District, Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux has yet to concede to incumbent Rob Woodall, who is just 0.14% in the lead after winning his 2016 election by over 20%.
The clearest takeaway from this governor’s race is that Georgia’s suburbs are changing. The heated, hateful rhetoric of President Donald Trump and some others in the Republican party is not playing well to suburban families despite its effectiveness in rural America. Democrats in Georgia and elsewhere capitalized on that fact this year by offering a different vision, one which is diverse, inclusive, and looks out for people over profits.
With the fervor surrounding some of the hottest races in the state, it has been easy to forget that there is another, smaller pair of elections in Georgia happening just 13 days from now. In two statewide races, no candidate garnered greater than 50% of the vote. These include the Secretary of State race, featuring former Congressman John Barrow and Georgia Representative Brad Raffensperger, as well as the Public Service Commission (District 3) race, featuring Democrat Lindy Miller and Republican incumbent Chuck Eaton.
Barrow and Miller are both eminently qualified candidates and would help lead Georgia down a better path. In particular, Barrow has recognized the desperate need to reform our state’s electoral process. One need only look at the difficulties of election day a little over two weeks ago to see how the system has failed hundreds of thousands of voters, disproportionately in minority districts. Due to those failures, people were forced away from polling places and it took more than a week to confidently certify vote counts. John Barrow is the candidate to ensure those things never happen again.
That is why it is important to vote on Tuesday, December 4th. So far, we have not seen the kind of enthusiasm or even awareness surrounding the runoff election, but a victory there would make victories in 2020 and 2022 all the more possible. If you believe in a better Georgia, one where everyone can vote and every vote counts, show up on December 4th like you showed up for Stacey Abrams on November 6th. We have one more civic duty to complete this year.
Tharon Johnson is a consultant with Paramount Consulting Group and a Democrat strategist.
