Unlike Georgia’s senatorial debate last Friday where the incumbent was forced to confront prop badges and incomprehensible, constant diversions, Monday night’s gubernatorial debate was a thing of beauty.
With a surgeon's precision and a chess player’s skill, Stacey Abrams reduced Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to slivers. Abrams came out of the gate attacking Kemp on everything from voter suppression to crime, to Medicaid expansion, to gun control, to reproductive justice.
Kemp continued to attempt to push back on Abrams via “her record,” but the reality is Abrams doesn’t have a record in the same way that he does. He’s the one currently serving; Abrams capitalized on this, highlighting the failings of the state under his leadership.
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When Abrams was attacked by Kemp on her support of law enforcement, she came back strong and with the receipts.
“I support law enforcement. And have done so for 11 years … I’m probably the only person standing here who’s ever actually written an SOP [standard operating procedure] for a police department when I was working for the city of Atlanta,” Abrams said.
Then she told a story about her two brothers. One who’s “committed crimes.”
“I want his victims to be able to call the police and get the help that they need, and I’ve always supported that right,” she said.
Then she talked about her other brother, the one who said has been pulled over for ”driving while Black” when he was coming home from his job as a social worker.
“Unlike you,” she said to Kemp, “I don’t have the luxury of relying on slogans to describe my position on public safety. I believe in safety and justice … and like most Georgians, I lead a complicated life where we need access to help, but we also need to know that we are safe from racial violence. While you may not have had that experience, too many people I know have.”
When Kemp tried to attack Abrams on her support of the defunding the police movement, accusing her of not having the support of sheriffs in the state, Abrams called out Kemp for lying.
She told Kemp that she did, in fact, have the support of sheriffs but also victims, advocates, and “those who want to be treated fairly in our system.” She added, “I have to have conversations with the entirety of Georgia. I don’t have the luxury of being part of a good ol’ boys club where we don’t focus on the needs of our people.”
As for Kemp’s lies, one comment stands out in the debate, and that was the governor’s answer to the question about restricting access to contraception and in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
According to Jezebel, an audio clip provided to The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) surfaced where during a campaign stop in Blakely, Georgia, a Kemp supporter asked whether the governor would support a “statewide ban on the destruction of embryos.” Kemp admitted that such legislation would be hard to pass, but when the supporter asked if he “likes the idea of protecting IVF embryos,” Kemp responded, “Yeah.”
When asked the same question during Monday’s debate, Kemp said, “No, I would not,” adding, “We were at many campaign events, and people come up with secret recordings and couldn’t completely understand the conversation, but no, that’s not my desire to do that,” he said. So which is it?
Then Abrams went after Kemp’s lack of support for Black and brown owned-businesses.
“We know that $10.9 billion has been delivered to the state of Georgia to recent acts at the congressional level, and Brian Kemp does not have a plan for making certain people of color have access to contracts … He has said we need to study it. I would tell him just cheat off my paper. I know the answer. We need a governor who believes in equity. Racial equity.”
On gun control, things got heated. In April, Kemp signed legislation making it legal for Georgia gun owners to carry a concealed handgun in public without a license.
When Abrams attacked Kemp on background checks, he responded by saying there was a “federal background check” on everyone who buys a gun.
“That’s not true,” Abrams said, adding that if someone buys a gun through a gun show or private sale, they are not subject to a background check.
Abrams is right.
“While federal law requires background checks for all gun sales by licensed gun dealers, it does not require background checks for guns sold by unlicensed sellers, like non-dealers who sell guns online or at gun shows. This loophole enables people with felony convictions, domestic abuse restraining orders, and other people with prohibiting histories to buy guns with no questions asked. The loophole should be closed to require background checks on all gun sales—not just on the sale of firearms from licensed gun dealers,” according to Everytown Research.
Abrams put a nail in Kemp’s coffin when asked what she saw as the most significant issues in Georgia and how she would fix them.
“This is a governor who, for the last four years, beats his chest but has delivered very little for most Georgians. He has weakened gun laws and flooded our streets. He’s weakened our privacy rights and women’s rights. He’s denied women access to reproductive care. The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is four more years of Brian Kemp. We need a governor who actually understands the math and the morality,” she said.
Abortion has been the number one topic for campaign ads this year, so we're talking with veteran ad maker Kelly Grace Gibson, the founder of the women-led Stronger Than Comms, about how Democrats are pressing their advantage on this week's edition of The Downballot. Gibson walks us through the nuts and bolts of how ads actually get made; how Democrats have shown unusual message discipline on abortion while simultaneously tailoring their messages to different audiences; and why she has hope for some progressive candidates and ballot measures even in difficult states.