Abrams, Stacey Y

Subterms

    Latest story

    150 Shares129 Views

    Major Layoffs at Fair Fight, Voting Rights Group Founded by Stacey Abrams

    by

    Fair Fight, the liberal voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams, is laying off most of its staff and scaling back its efforts in response to mounting debts incurred by court battles.Lauren Groh-Wargo, who led the organization before stepping down to manage Ms. Abrams’s second unsuccessful run for governor in Georgia in 2022, said she was returning as interim chief executive to lead the cuts, including laying off 20 employees — or 75 percent of the current staff.She added that Fair Fight was $2.5 million in debt with only $1.9 million cash on hand. Fair Fight raised some $100 million from 2018 to 2021.The cuts, in a decision made by the group’s board, would decimate a prominent liberal group that was once a fund-raising powerhouse for Democrats. The news was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Fair Fight has been involved in drawn-out legal battles over voting rights — for example, against a right-wing group, True the Vote, that sought in 2020 to remove some 250,000 registered voters in Georgia from voter rolls ahead of runoff elections for the state’s two Senate seats. A federal court ruled narrowly in favor of True the Vote this month.Fair Fight lost another court battle against the state of Georgia in early 2023, having claimed that restrictions on voter registration and absentee ballots violated voting rights. The group was ordered to pay more than $231,000 to cover the state’s legal fees.Ms. Abrams, at one point considered one of the nation’s most influential Democrats, founded Fair Fight after losing her first run for governor against Brian Kemp in 2018, but has not recently been involved with the group. Her efforts at building Democratic infrastructure in Georgia and driving voter turnout among the state’s people of color culminated in Democrats’ flipping both of Georgia’s Senate seats on Jan. 6, 2021.Ms. Abrams then lost her rematch against Mr. Kemp in 2022, and liberal grass-roots organizers and activist groups in Georgia, including Fair Fight, warned late last year that national financial support for their efforts had dried up ahead of the 2024 election. More

    More stories

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Brian Kemp, the Georgia Republican Who Emerged Stronger From Walker’s Defeat

      by

      Gov. Brian P. Kemp of Georgia — once derided by some of his fellow Republicans — has emerged in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Senate runoff as a savvy political operator.ATLANTA — As Republicans smarting from Herschel Walker’s defeat in Georgia continue the process of assigning blame, one man seems to be conspicuously above reproach: Gov. Brian P. Kemp.The state’s Republican governor — once derided as an unhinged far-right disrupter following a series of wildly provocative 2018 campaign ads — has emerged in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Senate runoff as one of his party’s savvier political operators.On Nov. 8, Mr. Kemp won re-election by a resounding eight-point margin — a remarkable transformation for a politician who went from being booed by conservatives at his own events in the May primary to defeating a national Democratic star, Stacey Abrams. His ability to deftly walk a fine line of providing just enough support to Mr. Walker without being damaged by his defeat was proof of Mr. Kemp’s formidable political instincts, Republicans inside and outside the state said. He has survived and even thrived in the face of Donald J. Trump’s mercurial opposition. Mr. Kemp started out earning Mr. Trump’s endorsement, then became the former president’s political enemy, overcoming a primary challenge that Mr. Trump had orchestrated. Just before last month’s general election, Mr. Trump suddenly switched gears and encouraged his followers to support the Georgia governor.Mr. Kemp has helped create a template for Republicans, showing them how to use Mr. Trump’s attacks to strengthen an independent political brand and not sacrifice support from the former president’s loyal base. His navigation of the Republican Party’s crosscurrents, along with an election performance that saw him outperform Mr. Trump in crucial suburban swing districts, has raised his national profile and heightened speculation about his future ambitions and a potential run for president in 2024. “The ceiling is extremely high for Brian Kemp right now,” said Stephen Lawson, a Georgia-based Republican strategist who ran a pro-Walker super PAC. “Whether that for him is the U.S. Senate in four years, whether that’s potentially looking at ’24 stuff or whether that’s just being a really good governor and a voice for your party, he is going to have a huge platform moving forward.”Mr. Kemp, a former homebuilder from Athens, Ga., has built his two-decade political career on a mix of luck, skill and occasional provocations — in one 2018 TV ad, he pointed a shotgun at an actor playing a suitor to one of his daughters. He speaks with a slow, deep Southern drawl that he sometimes plays up for the cameras, and as an alumnus of the University of Georgia, he has positioned himself as the fan-in-chief of its football team, which Mr. Walker helped lead to a national championship in 1980.The governor’s Democratic critics say that Mr. Kemp’s allegiance to far-right orthodoxy has harmed the state. He signed a restrictive 2019 abortion law that effectively bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy and refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, a decision that has caused the state to forgo billions of dollars in federal health care money.Mr. Kemp, in Bremen, Ga., in November, said that his kind of outreach and willingness to campaign helped him win re-election.Audra Melton for The New York TimesYet even his critics acknowledge his knack for presenting himself as an aw-shucks Georgian and making his case in small rural communities, handshake to handshake. In the eight years that he served as secretary of state, he built relationships with many of the local shot-callers — coroners, tax assessors, sheriffs — in Georgia’s 159 counties. Those ties likely helped insulate him from Mr. Trump’s attacks after the 2020 election among local Republican officials. “His success now really is a result of all these touches over the years — that ‘How’s your mama? How’s your daddy?’ kind of thing,” State Senator Jen Jordan, a Democrat and vocal Kemp critic, said. Such a face-to-face style may work locally and statewide, Ms. Jordan said, but may not translate beyond that. “Is that something you can do at the national level, like running for president?” she added.The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsCard 1 of 6A moment of reflection. More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      5 Key Factors That Will Decide the Georgia Senate Runoff

      by

      Georgians on Tuesday will decide whether Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, or Herschel Walker, the retired football star nominated by Republicans, will represent them in the Senate next year.The coda to the midterm elections comes after an intense, monthlong runoff contest in which Democrats spent nearly twice as much as the G.O.P.But money will only get you so far in politics. Here are five key factors that will help decide the winner.Republicans’ Election Day turnoutThe early vote has clearly favored Mr. Warnock. Georgia does not track the party affiliation of early voters, but Black voters, who exit polls showed overwhelmingly favored Mr. Warnock on Nov. 8, are about a third of the early-vote total in the runoff, according to the secretary of state’s office, a greater share than in past Georgia runoff elections. Women, who also sided with Mr. Warnock last month, have cast about 56 percent of the ballots. And Gen Z voters — 18- to 24-year-olds, who break liberal — have come on strong.Democratic modelers believe that Mr. Warnock goes into Election Day with about an eight-percentage-point lead. If so, they say, Republicans would have to turn out in force and capture about 60 percent of the votes cast on Tuesday for Mr. Walker to pull out a victory.Understand the Georgia Senate RunoffHow Walker Could Win: Despite the steady stream of tough headlines for Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate, he could prevail. Here’s how.Warnock’s Record: An electric car plant outside Savannah could be the central achievement for Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent. But Republicans aren’t giving him credit.Mixed Emotions: The contest might have been a showcase of Black political power in the Deep South. But many Black voters say Mr. Walker’s turbulent campaign has marred the moment.Insulin Prices: The issue is nowhere near as contentious as just about everything else raised in the race. But in a state with a high diabetes rate, it has proved a resonant topic.The weatherMore bad news for Mr. Walker: The forecast is for rain on Tuesday, especially in heavily Republican North Georgia.A highly motivated electorate would not let a cold, muddy day keep them from the polls, but Georgians are showing signs of fatigue. There was the brutal primary season in the spring that pitted Donald J. Trump’s wing of the Republican Party against Georgia Republicans who stood by their governor, Brian Kemp, in the face of Mr. Trump’s aspersions. Autumn brought a hard-fought general election for governor and for the Senate, and now a runoff has saturated the airwaves with attack ads.A day of heavy December rain could make voting on Tuesday feel even more like a slog.Senator Raphael Warnock, center, at a barbershop in Atlanta on Monday, with the musicians Killer Mike and D-Nice.Nicole Craine for The New York TimesBlack menWhen Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Walker as his anointed candidate, he figured the former Heisman Trophy winner, who guided the University of Georgia to a national championship in 1980, would have obvious appeal to Black voters, who turned out in force two years ago for Mr. Warnock, a minister at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.That proved a miscalculation. But many Black men were also less than enamored with a Black woman, Stacey Abrams, in her rematch with Mr. Kemp in the race for governor. Mr. Kemp won handily in November with 53 percent of the vote, even as Mr. Warnock nearly cleared 50 percent, in part because some Black men voted for Mr. Kemp and Mr. Warnock.On Tuesday, another Black male voter will be in the spotlight, the one who was so turned off by Ms. Abrams that he did not turn out Nov. 8. More than 76,000 voters who have cast runoff ballots already did not vote in the general election, according to GeorgiaVotes.com, a site that uses public data to analyze voting trends. That could be a sign of energized Black men.November’s ticket splittersGovernor Kemp’s 2.1 million votes in November outpaced Mr. Walker’s total by more than 200,000. And Mr. Warnock’s 1.9 million votes exceeded Ms. Abrams’s total by more than 130,000.Clearly, a large number of Georgians voted for both Mr. Kemp, a Republican, and Mr. Warnock, a Democrat.One question on Tuesday will be whether voters who came out to re-elect Mr. Kemp, and perhaps grudgingly voted to re-elect Mr. Warnock, will come out again only for Mr. Warnock.Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia at a Black Voices United for the Vote town hall event in Atlanta, in October.Nicole Craine for The New York TimesKemp votersAn even bigger question might be the corollary: Will Republican voters who turned out in November to vote for Mr. Kemp, and voted the straight Republican ticket, including for Mr. Walker, turn out again at all?Mr. Walker has proved to be a deeply flawed candidate. Even before primary voters chose him in May, he had been accused of domestic violence and stalking by an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend and a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Since then, he has had to own up to children out of wedlock. His son Christian Walker has publicly accused him of neglect and violence. And two women have said that Mr. Walker, who calls himself a devoutly anti-abortion Christian, pressed them to have abortions.Mr. Kemp’s popularity helped Mr. Walker win 48.5 percent of the vote last month. On Tuesday, Mr. Walker will have to do even better than that, and without the governor’s coattails. More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      ‘The Run-Up’ Podcast’s Guide to the Midterm Elections

      by

      A guide to the biggest questions heading into Election Day.Listen and follow ‘The Run-Up’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicIn 2020, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign was centered on removing Donald Trump from office, unifying the country and fighting for “the soul of the nation.” Two years later, the country is still fractured, with voters seemingly more anxious and disconnected than ever before.Over the last two months, Astead Herndon, host of “The Run-Up,” spoke with reporters, voters and newsmakers across the country to better understand the biggest issues heading into the midterm elections. With Election Day on Tuesday, here’s a guide from “The Run-Up” to the most important questions about what’s at stake.What did Democrats and Republicans get wrong about voters?In 2013, shortly after Barack Obama won his second presidential term, the G.O.P. issued an “autopsy” to understand where the party had gone wrong and blamed the party’s failures on an out-of-touch leadership that ignored minorities.In this episode, Astead spoke to Adam Nagourney, The Times’s former chief national political correspondent, and Kellyanne Conway, the former counselor to President Donald J. Trump, about how the Trump campaign went against the party’s recommendation in 2016, and to Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter at The Times, about misconceptions about minority voters.The AutopsyIs democracy still the goal?In September of 2022, Mr. Biden argued that democracy was one of the core ideas on which the country was built and that Democrats and Republicans should join together in defending it. He repeated that call in the week before the midterm elections.But when Astead asked Representative James E. Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and a native of the formerly Confederate South, about the state of American democracy, Mr. Clyburn said that the country’s commitment to an inclusive political system had long wavered.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.Biden’s Speech: In a prime-time address, President Biden denounced Republicans who deny the legitimacy of elections, warning that the country’s democratic traditions are on the line.State Supreme Court Races: The traditionally overlooked contests have emerged this year as crucial battlefields in the struggle over the course of American democracy.Democrats’ Mounting Anxiety: Top Democratic officials are openly second-guessing their party’s pitch and tactics, saying Democrats have failed to unite around one central message.Social Security and Medicare: Republicans, eyeing a midterms victory, are floating changes to the safety net programs. Democrats have seized on the proposals to galvanize voters.And when Robert Draper, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, was traveling through Arizona, he observed a deeply anti-democratic sentiment — one that he wrote was “distinct from anything I have encountered in over two decades of covering conservative politics.” In Arizona, Mr. Draper said Republicans saw democracy as an obstacle.The RepublicWhat prompted the transformation of American evangelicalism?A new class of conservative politicians has emerged, calling for the erasure of the separation between church and state and pushing the Republican Party further toward extremes. Others have embraced an identity as Christian nationalists — and attacked the idea of American democracy.Astead spoke with Ruth Graham, a Times national correspondent, about the origins of this grass-roots movement, and Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, about the next era of the evangelical church and the Republican Party it’s reshaping.The GuardrailsWill the fight over abortion rights unite Democrats?While Republicans deploy their playbook for national elections at the local level, anticipating and strategizing for policy changes across the country, Democrats have struggled to find a core message to rally around. “Democrats have so many issues we care about, it’s just such a big agenda,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told Astead. “It’s not really that our messaging is bad; it’s that we’re not all on the same song sheet.”However, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade earlier this year, Democrats may have finally found an issue that will unite and energize their base. Astead spoke to Ms. Gillibrand about the fight for abortion rights, Democratic messaging and what’s needed to expand majorities in both chambers of Congress.The BlueprintWill Stacey Abrams become governor of Georgia?Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesWhen Democrats flipped Georgia in 2020, helping fuel Mr. Biden’s victory, credit was given to Stacey Abrams and her playbook. For years, she had worked to register and turn out Democratic voters. Will her strategy work in a rematch against the incumbent governor, Brian Kemp?Astead talked to Ms. Abrams herself about the race. He then spoke to Maya King, a Times political reporter, about her reporting on some demographic groups that Ms. Abrams has seemed to lose ground with.The FlipWhat did 12 years of gerrymandering do to Wisconsin?Wisconsin’s State Legislature became the most gerrymandered in the country as a result of over a decade’s work that began in secret after the 2010 elections. Now, in these midterms, Democrats say they’re at risk of being shut out of power for the foreseeable future. The strategy is “colliding with the hardened Republican base that is increasingly pushing the party toward extremes,” Astead explains. “They’ve overrun the Republicans who created the system, and also the Democrats, who can’t stop them.”Astead spoke to Reid Epstein, who covers campaigns and elections for The Times, about whether there is a path forward for Democrats in Wisconsin — and how Republicans are employing this same gerrymandering strategy in other swing states.The MapsWhat’s at stake for conservative voters who want to take back Congress?This moment in politics will be defined by shifts at the grass-roots level. In conversations with four conservative voters, Astead delves into the issues driving their votes in the midterm elections — including inflation, immigration and defending the country from liberal values, even if it mean sacrificing democracy itself.The Grass Roots, Part 1Can the Democrats re-energize their base before it’s too late?After the Obama presidency, Democrats felt they had a diverse base made up of young people, minority voters and college-educated women that could carry the party for a generation. However, in 2016, some voters stayed home, and in 2020, others backed Mr. Trump instead.In the final episode of “The Run-Up” before the midterms, Astead spoke to Democratic voters about the state of the party, voting for Mr. Biden and the best ways to unite their fractured coalition.The Grass Roots, Part 2 More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      What Happened on Georgia’s Last Day of Early Voting

      by

      Clockwise from top left, Athens, Ga.; the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta; the Bessie Branham Recreation Center in Atlanta; Decatur, Ga.Audra Melton for The New York Times, Nicole Craine for The New York TimesATLANTA — Georgia’s last day of early voting was arguably the busiest of the state’s entire election season, marked not only by a high volume of voters at the polls but also by a surprise endorsement and a major retirement.The endorsement was for Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and the surprise was that it came from a Democrat: Kwanza Hall, a well-known former congressman in the state who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor earlier this year.The announcement alarmed and frustrated many Georgia Democrats who saw the move as a swipe at Stacey Abrams, the party’s nominee for governor who endorsed Mr. Hall’s opponent Charlie Bailey during the Democratic primary. Mr. Bailey later defeated Mr. Hall in a runoff election.“While we don’t agree on every issue, it’s abundantly clear that Brian Kemp is a man of character, a strong leader, and someone who Georgians can trust to put them and their interests first,” Mr. Hall said in a statement. “Governor Kemp’s door has always been open to those who have Georgia’s best interests at heart, regardless of politics, and that’s why I’m proud to support him in his bid for re-election.”He also threw his support behind Burt Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor.Mr. Hall’s endorsement of Mr. Kemp, some Democrats argued, could interfere with their efforts to stoke enthusiasm among the party’s base of Black voters that Democrats need to turn out en masse in order to win on Tuesday.“It could very well solidify this narrative that’s been circulated the last few months about Black men feeling disenfranchised by Democrats,” said Derrick Jackson, an Atlanta-area state representative and vice chair of the state house legislative Black caucus, who pointed to the hundreds of thousands of voters who cast ballots for Mr. Hall, who is Black, during the Democratic primary election in May. “That’s a lot of folks that he can very well have persuaded to say, let me take a second look at Governor Kemp and Burt Jones now.”The news didn’t stop there. Later in the morning, David Ralston, the Republican speaker of the State House, said that he would not pursue another term of his speakership during the upcoming legislative session of Georgia’s House of Representatives, citing his need to address a health challenge. He is running unopposed for his house seat and said he would remain in that post.Mr. Ralston is widely regarded as one of Georgia’s most powerful Republican leaders and a voice of moderation in the General Assembly, where his party has the majority in both chambers. His absence could pave the way for further restrictions on abortion or tighter election oversight measures — items he once signaled his resistance to.The two developments injected even more nervous energy into the final days of an election season that has long put Georgia Democrats ill at ease.And Friday was yet another record-breaking day of early voting turnout, as long lines at polling places around Atlanta stretched well into the evening. By the day’s end, more than 200,000 voters had cast ballots in Georgia, bringing the statewide total to more than 2 million, according to the secretary of state’s office. More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      4 Takeaways From the Last Kemp-Abrams Debate Before Election Day

      by

      Gov. Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams, who would like to replace him, met Sunday night for one of the last major televised debates of the 2022 midterm election cycle, and the Georgia showdown delivered an hour heavy on substance and light on political fireworks and viral moments.Mr. Kemp, a Republican who narrowly defeated Ms. Abrams, a Democrat, in 2018, holds a durable lead of 5 to 10 percentage points in public and private polling, a status that was evident throughout their discussion.Mr. Kemp took few chances, stuck to his talking points about how Ms. Abrams has spent the years since their last contest and tried to sell Georgia voters on how good they have things now.Ms. Abrams, as she has done throughout her campaign, pressed a message that prosperity in Mr. Kemp’s Georgia has not been shared equally. Under an Abrams administration, she said, Black people and women would have more input into their relationship with the government — or in the case of abortion rights, pushing the government away from any relationship at all.Here are four takeaways from Sunday’s debate:Abrams tried to catch up.With just about all of Ms. Abrams’s arguments against Mr. Kemp well worn by now — she has been making parts of them fairly consistently since their 2018 race — she sought a new approach to chip away at Mr. Kemp’s advantage in the race and remind her supporters that the election isn’t over.So she turned to Herschel Walker, seeking to tie Mr. Kemp to Georgia’s Republican Senate nominee. Mr. Walker’s campaign has been plagued by a host of revelations about his past: that despite opposing abortion rights, he pushed women with whom he’d had relationships to undergo abortions and that he had physically attacked women and family members — accusations Georgians are seeing nonstop in television advertising.A watch event in Atlanta for the governor’s debate on Sunday evening.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesDuring a segment discussing new restrictions on abortion that Mr. Kemp signed into law, Ms. Abrams accused him of refusing to defend women.“And yet he defended Herschel Walker, saying that he didn’t want to be involved” in Mr. Walker’s personal life, she said. She added, “But he doesn’t mind being involved in the personal lives and the personal medical choices of the women in Georgia. What’s the difference? Well, I would say the equipment.”Kemp: Check my record.Ms. Abrams criticized Mr. Kemp for a majority of the policy decisions during his term as governor, like ignoring public health guidance to keep businesses open at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and supporting a law that allows the purchase of firearms without a permit. But Mr. Kemp dismissed her arguments with an I’m-rubber-and-you’re-glue argument.“This debate’s going to be a lot like the last one,” he said early on, before delivering a line he’d repeat throughout the hour. “Ms. Abrams is going to attack my record because she doesn’t want to talk about her own record.”The refrain is a common one from Mr. Kemp and one he used against his Republican primary opponent, David Perdue. It also underlines a key feature of Mr. Kemp’s re-election campaign, which has focused largely on his first term. And while Ms. Abrams has a policy record dating back to her years as State House minority leader, hers did not include policymaking from the governor’s mansion.She recognized that fact in her rebuttal before reading off a laundry list of his policies she disagreed with: “I have not been in office for the last four years.”Mr. Kemp stuck to his talking points on Sunday in the debate in Atlanta.Ben Gray/Associated PressLong answers led to fewer fireworks.Hosted by the Atlanta TV station WSB, the debate was meant to be heavy on policy and light on drama — and policy heavy it was. The format gave each candidate 90 seconds — as opposed to 60 or even 45 in some other debates — to answer each question, with rebuttals that often lasted just as long.It was also a performance in which both candidates kept within the rules. There were no interruptions or interjections and at no point in the hourlong debate did the moderators have to remind either candidate of the agreed-upon time limits.That gave the candidates ample time to articulate their views and gave Georgia’s voters one of the clearest opportunities to judge for themselves the candidates’ policy and stylistic differences.The moderators also left the job of policing fact from fiction to the candidates themselves — a responsibility both Mr. Kemp and Ms. Abrams did not hesitate to accept. The questions posed were open-ended, allowing a robust discussion but not one in which the moderators challenged the candidates on their own past positions and statements.Two candidates who disagree on everything.There is virtually no overlap in Ms. Abrams’s and Mr. Kemp’s views on the issues most animating the race. Those stark differences came into full view during their back-and-forth on firearms, abortion, the state’s election laws and use of the state’s budget.Mr. Kemp argued that universal access to guns would allow more people in Georgia to protect themselves. Ms. Abrams said that logic would put more people in danger and increase the likelihood of mass shootings.Ms. Abrams has loudly criticized the state’s newly instituted law outlawing abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — Mr. Kemp signed and defended the law. And on the state’s more than $6 billion state budget surplus, Mr. Kemp said he supported allocating the funds for tax relief while Ms. Abrams has proposed using it to fund an array of state programs.The differences highlighted the candidates’ contrasting partisan instincts and put a clear choice between the two on display for an electorate that is very closely divided. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Kemp and Abrams Face Off Sunday for Final Debate in Georgia’s Governor Race

      by

      ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican, and Stacey Abrams, his Democratic challenger, will meet again onstage on Sunday for their second and final debate in a campaign rematch for governor.The one-hour debate will be hosted by WSB-TV in Atlanta and begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time. It will be broadcast live on local Atlanta television and carried on WSB-TV’s streaming service. Reporters from The New York Times will provide live analysis and updates.To participate in this debate, candidates had to meet a 10 percent polling threshold, which disqualified the Libertarian candidate, Shane Hazel.Early voting is already in full swing in Georgia as the last full week of campaigning before Election Day begins. Several high-profile surrogates from both parties have visited the state to bolster Mr. Kemp’s and Ms. Abrams’s campaigns, including former President Barack Obama, who held a rally in Atlanta for the Democratic ticket on Friday. Former Vice President Mike Pence will campaign with Mr. Kemp around the Atlanta area on Tuesday.Sunday’s debate will provide both candidates with a platform to deliver their closing messages to voters in a race for governor that has largely been defined by national trends. Ms. Abrams has made health care and abortion access a cornerstone of her campaign in light of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, while Mr. Kemp has hammered her and Democrats in Washington over rising prices and the volatile economy.As of Friday, polls showed Mr. Kemp ahead of Ms. Abrams by an average of seven percentage points. More