Republican consultants aligned with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp are trying to counter get-out-the-vote programs by Georgia Democratic activist Stacey Abrams as she gears up for a 2022 election bid in a state where her party has made major gains over the past two election cycles.
Headed up by Jeremy Brand, Kemp’s former campaign strategist, StopStacey.org launched Monday with the aim of building up a fundraising infrastructure over the next 21 months while mobilizing conservative supporters and airing anti-Abrams ads.
“We will do whatever it takes to expose Stacey Abrams’ radical network, highlight her dangerous agenda, and ultimately defeat her — and her left-wing candidates — at the ballot box,” Brand said in a statement. “There is no time to waste: We must stand up, fight back, and Stop Stacey.”
Although Abrams failed to win the gubernatorial election against Kemp in 2018, which she never conceded, she used her political momentum from that election cycle to build a voter network around her state to help fellow Democratic candidates.
StopStacey.org says it expects to focus on Abrams’s Fair Fight voting organization, which she founded after the 2018 campaign, along with another organization she runs, the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group. New Georgia Project is under investigation by the secretary of state’s office for allegedly attempting to register out-of-state voters for the Jan. 5 runoffs.
The move comes as Republicans in the long-red state dip in popularity. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found 50% of Georgians have a favorable view of Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock has a 54% approval rating.
Warnock faces reelection in 2022, as he is completing the final two years of the term to which Republican sen. Johnny Isakson was elected in 2016, before illness forced him from office at the end of 2019. And Abrams is expected to launch a second bid for the governor in Georgia in 2022.
“Our goal is to rally conservative, grassroots supporters in the state and unite behind the common goal of defeating her in 2022,” StopStacey.org spokesman Stephen Lawson told the Washington Examiner. “If Republicans want to be successful in Georgia in 2022, it starts with defeating Stacey and her network.”
