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Democrat Stacey Abrams launches another run for Georgia governor
Former state legislator narrowly lost to Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2018
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com
ATLANTA (CFP) — Democrat Stacey Abrams has launched a new bid for Georgia governor, setting up a possible rematch with Republican Governor Brian Kemp — if he can get through his party’s primary in the face of fierce opposition from Donald Trump.
Governor candidate Stacey Abrams, D-Georgia
Abrams, 47, a former state legislator who founded a voting rights group after her 2018 loss to Kemp, announced her candidacy in a video posted on Twitter December 1, reviving the “one Georgia” theme that was central to her 2018 campaign.
“If our Georgia is going to move to its next and greatest chapter, we’re going to need leadership,” she said. “Leadership that knows how to do the job. Leadership that doesn’t take credit without also taking responsibility. Leadership that understands the true pain folks are felling and has real plans.”
In 2018, Abrams lost to Kemp by 55,000 votes, coming closer to winning the governorship than any Democrat had in two decades. She acknowledged Kemp’s win but refused to formally concede, alleging that voting suppression tactics had tainted the outcome.
At the time, Kemp was in charge of state elections as secretary of state.
After her loss, Abrams founded a voting rights group, Fair Fight, and led an effort to mobilize Democratic voters that was widely credited with Joe Biden’s win in Georgia in 2020 and victories in two U.S. Senate runoffs.
While she is unlikely to face any significant opposition in the Democratic primary, Kemp may not have that luxury.
Trump — angry that Kemp didn’t go along with efforts to overturn the 2020 results in Georgia — has been encouraging Republicans to try to take the governor down in a primary. His criticism has taken a toll on Kemp’s approval rating, which stood at just 42% in a recent Morning Consult poll.
Former U.S. Senator David Perdue is reportedly considering launching a primary challenge, which could plunge Republicans into ugly combat as Abrams stands by turning her national profile into a mountain of cash.
If elected, Abrams would be the first woman and the first person of color to serve as the state’s chief executive. However, Democrats haven’t won a governor’s race since 1998.
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Atlanta City Council member Andre Dickens surges to landslide win in mayor’s runoff
Dickens easily defeats City Council President Felicia Moore for city’s top post
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
ATLANTA (CFP) – Atlanta City Council member Andre Dickens has come from behind to to claim a landslide victory to be the next mayor of the Deep South’s commercial and financial capital.
Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens celebrates win with supporters (From Fox 5 Atlanta)
Dickens, 47, a non-profit executive who has served two terms in a citywide council seat, erased a nearly 18-point deficit in the first round of voting to defeat City Council President Felicia Moore by a margin of 62% to 38% in the November 30 runoff.
He will take the helm of the city amid increasing concerns about a rise in violent crime and a campaign by residents of the wealthy Buckhead enclave to secede and form their own city.
Speaking to his supporters at an outdoor victory party, Dickens said Atlantans “voted for progress and a problem solver.”
“The people who made this victory possible — they will change Atlanta’s future,” he said. “There is no limit to Atlanta, and that’s what we’ve got to look forward to.”
Dickens had come from the back of the pack in a crowded field during the first round of voting to win a place in the runoff behind Moore, edging out former Mayor Kasim Reed.
During the runoff campaign, he snagged key endorsements from a who’s who of local political leaders — including incumbent Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis – and went after Moore as too negative to get along with other leaders in the city.
Moore, 60, a real estate broker and community activist, was a fixture in city politics, having served on the City Council for more than two decades and as its president for the past four.
Crime was the number one issue in the campaign, with the city’s homicide rate up nearly 57% in the past two years.
Both candidates had proposed getting more police officers on to the streets, but Moore rapped Dickens for supporting a measure that would have withheld a portion of the police budget until reforms were made.
She accused Dickens of supporting defunding the police, which he said was not the intention of the proposal.
A drive by residents in the mostly white, upscale Buckhead area to secede from the city – which could be devastating to the city’s tax base — is likely to be a key headache for Dickens as he take the city’s reins.
Bottoms — who built a national profile as mayor that landed her on Joe Biden’s vice presidential short list in 2020 — shocked the city’s political circles in May when she announced she would not seek a second term.
Her immediate predecessor, Reed, tried to launch a comeback but finished third behind Moore and Dickens in the first round of voting.
The mayor of Atlanta is a non-partisan position, but both Dickens and Moore are Democrats.
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Atlanta City Council member Andre Dickens surges to landslide win in mayor runoff
Dickson easily defeats City Council President Felicia Moore for city’s top post
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
ATLANTA (CFP) – Atlanta City Council member Andre Dickens has come from behind to to claim a landslide victory to be the next mayor of the Deep South’s commercial and financial capital.
Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens celebrates win with supporters (From Fox 5 Atlanta)
Dickens, 47, a non-profit executive who has served two terms in a citywide council seat, erased a nearly 18-point deficit in the first round of voting to defeat City Council President Felicia Moore by a margin of 62% to 38% in the November 30 runoff.
He will take the helm of the city amid increasing concerns about a rise in violent crime and a campaign by residents of the wealthy Buckhead enclave to secede and form their own city.
Speaking to his supporters at an outdoor victory party, Dickens said Atlantans “voted for progress and a problem solver.”
“The people who made this victory possible — they will change Atlanta’s future,” he said. “There is no limit to Atlanta, and that’s what we’ve got to look forward to.”
Dickens had come from the back of the pack in a crowded field during the first round of voting to win a place in the runoff behind Moore, edging out former Mayor Kasim Reed.
During the runoff campaign, he snagged key endorsements from a who’s who of local political leaders — including incumbent Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis – and went after Moore as too negative to get along with other leaders in the city.
Moore, 60, a real estate broker and community activist, was a fixture in city politics, having served on the City Council for more than two decades and as its president for the past four.
Crime was the number one issue in the campaign, with the city’s homicide rate up nearly 57% in the past two years.
Both candidates had proposed getting more police officers on to the streets, but Moore rapped Dickens for supporting a measure that would have withheld a portion of the police budget until reforms were made.
She accused Dickens of supporting defunding the police, which he said was not the intention of the proposal.
A drive by residents in the mostly white, upscale Buckhead area to secede from the city – which could be devastating to the city’s tax base — is likely to be a key headache for Dickens as he take the city’s reins.
Bottoms — who built a national profile as mayor that landed her on Joe Biden’s vice presidential short list in 2020 — shocked the city’s political circles in May when she announced she would not seek a second term.
Her immediate predecessor, Reed, tried to launch a comeback but finished third behind Moore and Dickens in the first round of voting.
The mayor of Atlanta is a non-partisan position, but both Dickens and Moore are Democrats.
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West Virginia’s Jim Justice is South’s most popular governor; Georgia’s Brian Kemp the least
Morning Consult poll shows Democratic governors with aggressive COVID-19 strategies with higher approval than GOP governors who have resisted mandates
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
(CFP) – West Virginia Governor Jim Justice is the South’s most popular chief executive, with Alabama’s Kay Ivey close behind in new polls on gubernatorial approval from the polling firm Morning Consult.
The polls, taken over the course of the last four months and released November 11, also show that Georgia Republican Brian Kemp’s approval rating among registered voters was just 42%, making him the region’s least popular chief executive as he heads into what is expected to be a tough re-election battle next year against furious opposition from Donald Trump.
The poll in Kentucky had better news for Democrat Andy Beshear, whose approval rating stood at 54%, despite taking considerable fire from Republicans over his COVID-19 policies.
Beshear will face voters again in 2023, as will Mississippi Republican Tate Reeves. However, the approval rating for Reeves, who may face a primary challenge from House Speaker Philip Gunn, stood at just 49%, making him and Kemp the only two Southern governors with approval ratings below 50% ahead of a run for his third term.
Morning Consult did not report disapproval numbers, so it was unclear if Reeves and Kemp were actually under water in their approval numbers, with more people disapproving than approving.
The approval rating for Florida Republican Ron DeSantis, who has taken the leading in fighting mask and vaccine mandates, stood at 52% ahead of a Democratic challenge in 2022. Texas’s Greg Abbott, who has taken a similar line of resistance against mandates, had an approval rating of 50%.
Three of the region’s Democratic governors who have been more aggressive with COVID-19 mitigation measures – Beshear, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper and Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards – had higher approval ratings than DeSantis and Abbott, although within the poll’s margin of error.
Justice’s approval rating stood at 65%, despite a string of headlines about financial and regulatory problems for companies owned by his family and an odd dispute about whether he should be hired to coach a boy’s high school basketball team.
Ivey, who became governor in 2017 when her predecessor resigned in a sex scandal, had an approval rating at 62%, as she heads into a re-election race in which she will be heavily favored.
However, she, too, has run afoul of Trump over cancellation of a June rally in Mobile, and he is reportedly trying to find a primary challenger to run against her.
Tennessee’s Bill Lee and Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt also appear to be in strong shape for 2022, with Lee’s approval at 55% and Stitt’s at 54%.
The other Southern governor up next year, South Carolina’s Henry McMaster, stood at 52%.
Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson has a 57% approval rating as he heads toward the exit due to term limits – despite being one of the very few elected Republicans willing to offer criticism of Trump.
Hutchinson has said he will not back Trump if he runs for the White House again in 2024 and that relitigating the 2020 election would be a “recipe for disaster.” He has raised his national profile in recent months, with numerous appearances on Sunday talk shows, prompting speculation that he might make his own presidential run in 2024.
Kemp has drawn Trump’s active wrath for refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State. Former Republican U.S. Senator David Perdue is considering a primary challenge, and the GOP nominee will likely be facing Democrat Stacey Abrams, whom Kemp narrowly beat in 2018.
Two Southern Democratic governors who are in the middle of their second and final term – Edwards and Cooper – had positive approval ratings, at 53% and 52%, respectively.
Morning Consult gathered the responses from July 21 to October 20 among registered voters in each state. The margin of error was +/-4%.
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Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore advances to runoff for mayor; Kasim Reed falls short
Ken Welch wins open seat in St. Petersburg; Francis Suarez and Elaine O’Neal cruise to victory in Miami and Durham
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com
(CFP) — Voters in four large Southern cities decided elections for city offices Tuesday, with the field set for a November 30 runoff for the open mayor’s post in Atlanta.
In Atlanta, where incumbent Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms did not seek re-election, City Council President Felicia Moore ran up a large lead in a 14-person race, but her 41% was not enough for the majority she needed to avoid a runoff.
In the battle for the second runoff spot, with all precincts reporting, City Councilman Andre Dickens held just a 576 vote lead over former mayor Kasim Reed, who was trying to make a comeback to the mayor’s office he held from 2010 to 2018.
Dickens declared victory for the second spot, but Reed has so far not conceded.
The race has focused on rising violent crime in the city and Reed’s previous time as mayor, with several former aides convicted or facing corruption charges. Reed himself has not been charged, but critics argued that the ethical problems in his previous administration should be disqualifying.
Bottoms, who led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and was mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for Joe Biden last year, surprised the political world in May when she announced that she would not seek another term as mayor.
In St. Petersburg, where Mayor Rick Kriseman is term limited, former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch easily defeated City Council member Robert Blackmon.
While city elections in St. Petersburg are officially non-partisan, Welch is a Democrat and Blackmon is a Republican, and the race has taken on a partisan hue, with endorsements from party leaders on both sides..
In Miami, Mayor Francis Suarez won re-election in a landslide against four little known candidates.
In Durham, where Mayor Steve Schewel did not seek re-election, Elaine O’Neal, a former judge and law professor, will become the first black woman elected to lead the city.
She won 86% in the first round of voting in October, prompting the second-place candidate, City Council member Javiera Caballero, to suspend her campaign.
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