For the second time in four years, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) defeated Stacey Abrams (D) for the right to lead the state of Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Abrams had called Kemp to concede the race.
Tuesday’s election was a rematch of Kemp and Abrams’ head-to-head contest in 2018, in which Kemp edged out Abrams by a narrow, two-point margin. This time, Kemp—vested with the advantages of incumbency and a political environment favoring Republicans—dispatched Abrams by a far more comfortable margin.
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The result is an exclamation point on a remarkable reversal of fortune for Kemp, whose political career was pronounced dead just two years ago. After the 2020 election that saw Joe Biden win Georgia, Kemp declined to entertain Donald Trump’s election fraud conspiracies, making him persona non grata with the former president—and a swath of the diehard GOP base.
In 2021, Trump spurred former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) to mount a primary challenge to Kemp, but he fell flat in spectacular fashion. The governor managed to attract GOP voters despite attracting the ex-president’s constant ire, and they overwhelmingly decided his conservative record was more compelling than Trump’s allegations he did not do enough to stop alleged election fraud.
Abrams, widely credited as the architect of the Democratic sweep of Georgia in 2020, is known nationwide as a savvy organizer and a prolific fundraiser. But faced with an opponent who was actually strengthened by his primary fight—and an environment where GOP voters were far more enthusiastic about voting than Democrats—Abrams struggled to gain traction.
Despite Abrams’ nearly $100 million fundraising haul—outpacing Kemp by over $30 million—observers considered the governor a clear favorite to win a second term. Nearly all public polls of the race showed him with a lead.
Kemp’s victory solidifies his own reputation as a survivor in today’s GOP, and casts a cloud over Abrams’ future. A nationally-admired liberal who has openly stoked talk that she will run for president, the Democrat has yet to win a major election in her home state. Her defeat also means that it will be at least another two years before a U.S. state might elect its first Black woman as governor.
