Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is scheduled to campaign this weekend with former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in his race for a second term, his campaign announced.
Abrams, who became a voting rights activist after her failed 2018 bid for Georgia governor, will join McAuliffe on Sunday, when the pair will make overtures to religious voters at three Norfolk-area churches and participate in a “Souls to the Polls” event in the city. The coastal Virginia city and surrounding areas have significant black populations. McAuliffe and Abrams are also scheduled to host a grassroots event in Northern Virginia that afternoon.
Abrams became a Democratic icon of sorts in her losing gubernatorial bid. She refused to concede to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, citing voter roll purges he conducted as secretary of state, which, according to her, discriminated against Georgia’s black voting population.
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McAuliffe holds a “small but narrowing” lead over his Republican rival Glenn Youngkin, a Christopher Newport University poll released last week found. McAuliffe leads Youngkin 49% to 45% among likely voters, which is within the poll’s 4.2% margin of error.
Virginia is the only state in which governors cannot run for a second straight term. McAuliffe was governor from 2014-18 and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2001-05.
Maddie Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Republican Governors Association, said in a statement that McAuliffe “thought he had the race won the moment he declared his candidacy, and he’s now paying the price for his arrogance.”
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“McAuliffe knows that while his team is asleep at the wheel, Republicans have the energy on our side,” Anderson said. “His latest act of desperation is to call in Stacey Abrams, who has yet to concede her 2018 loss. This begs the question: if McAuliffe loses to Glenn Youngkin, will he concede or will he follow in the footsteps of his next surrogate?”
