At some point over the last two years, maybe at the very moment Joe Biden was declared the winner of Georgia’s presidential contest, Stacey Abrams rocketed from being a well-known political figure to being a genuine cultural phenomenon.
After Georgia helped defeat Donald Trump for president, and went on to flip power in the Senate from Republican to Democrat with two improbable victories over incumbent Republicans, Abrams got much of the credit for getting minority voters to the polls to make history.
She was featured in magazines from Vogue to Variety. She was nominated for an Emmy and the Nobel Peace Prize. She became friends with Meghan Markle.
Abrams also testified before Congress. And signed a new book deal.
After a Hollywood bidding war, a different book will now become a television project, which Abrams signed on to executive produce.
There is a nationwide theater book tour, for yet another book, which will run through Thanksgiving. One of the two companies she co-founded raised $9.5 million in Series A funding earlier this year.
Stacey Abrams has been so prolific over the last year, she’s practically a lifestyle brand — Oprah without the talk show — and it feels like she could land a talk show at any time if it’s what she wants next.
“What she wants next” is the question. And Georgia Democrats are operating with full confidence that what comes next for Abrams is a rematch bid against Gov. Brian Kemp for 2022, even though she has never publicly said what she plans to do.
Democratic operatives and elected officials are so sure of her path that they are running headlong into 2022 with a slate full of competitive primaries for every statewide race on the ballot, except the race at the top of the ticket.
When the Young Democrats of Georgia held a forum for statewide office hopefuls last week, 15 candidates, in every race from labor commissioner to lieutenant governor, came to make their case to the activists.
The one race that went unmentioned was the race for governor.
“It was of like an elephant in the room, a couple of people mentioned it outright, you know, ‘When Stacey jumps in ... when she runs,’” said Rick Hart, the president of the Young Democrats.
“The expectation for us is that she’s going to run, and we’re going to do everything we can to back her and ensure that she defeats Governor Kemp next November.”
Hart shares that expectation with nearly every other Democrat in the state. The party is so confident that there simply is no Plan B.
Not only is no other Democrat prepping a campaign, there has never been a rumor, not even a whisper to political reporters in the state, that anyone else is even considering it.
DuBose Porter, the former chairman of the state party and a longtime Abrams’ ally, expects her to make her plans known at a time that’s smart strategically.
And September of 2021, with a mayor’s race happening in Atlanta, isn’t that time.
“That’s a distraction for voters,” he said. “I also think it’s pretty good to let the Republicans shoot at each other. Why would you get in the middle of that when they’re doing such a good job of it themselves?”
Porter fully expects Abrams to run.
“That’s what she’s always wanted to do,” he said. “And the work to be done is what she’s most interested in.”
He said that work includes Medicaid expansion and funding public education, and of course, voting rights — all issues that state Rep. Carolyn Hugley worked with Abrams on when Abrams was the state House Minority Leader.
Like Porter, Hugley isn’t worried “at all” about Abrams’ timetable.
“Stacey has proven her stripes on the Democratic side and whenever she makes her decision, I think it will be just fine,” she said. “People are confident that Stacey Abrams has the welfare of the Democrats in Georgia at heart and I am certain that she will not leave us hanging out there without a candidate.”
No Democrats I spoke with seemed to have a clear idea about exactly when Abrams might declare her plans and her spokesman also declined to comment.
In an interview published Tuesday with the Bitter Southerner, Abrams was asked about what her future holds, but even she didn’t discuss her immediate plans.
“I have not decided what my next steps are politically, but I do intend one day, if the stars align, I do intend to one day run for president,” she said. “It is a job I would love to hold.”
If Abrams ultimately decided against running, it’s hard to see who could step up for the party and engender the same wild devotion that activists and Democratic voters already have for her.
“I really don’t think there’s any candidate that could put up the fight like she could,” the Young Democrat Rick Hart told me. “For me personally, and a lot of young voters in the state, it’s Stacey Abrams or bust.”
With close to 100% name identification in Georgia and the proven ability to essentially turn on a firehose of cash and point it at the state, the truth is Abrams doesn’t need to announce for governor even a day before the qualifying deadline in March.
And to DuBose Porter’s point, Brian Kemp will stay busy enough fending off the Republican who has already announced a primary challenge against him, not to mention the many rumored candidates who have not.
“Is everybody is ready for 2022?” Porter said. “Yeah, we’re just not there yet.”
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