Longtime Georgia legislator Stacey Abrams is running for governor of Georgia, a campaign that could potentially make her the state’s first black governor and the nation’s first black female governor.
Prominent Democratic donor Susan Sandler, alongside other donors, recently donated $2.5 million towards Abrams’ campaign, according to USA Today. This is only the first phase of a larger party strategy to get Abrams, a former state House minority leader, in the Governor’s Mansion.
“Although their party has not held the governor’s mansion in solidly Republican Georgia in more than 15 years, Democrats are emboldened by recent victories in Virginia’s governor’s race and in deep-red Alabama, where Doug Jones became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state in 25 years,” USA Today reports.
Abrams, also a romance novelist, is running against former state Rep. Stacey Evans (they share the same first name) for the party’s nomination.
On the other side of the political spectrum, five leading Republicans are running for the GOP nomination: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, former state Sen. Hunter Hill, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, businessman Clay Tippins and state Sen. Michael Williams.
Georgia’s primary will take place on May 22