佐治亚州哥伦布。-四年前，佐治亚州民主党人举行了州长初选，因为该党的保守派不相信斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯。她击败了他们的选择，在一个接近的将军选举loss在一个新的战场州确立了自己事实上的政党领袖的地位。

这预示了2020年，当时乔·拜登28年来首次将格鲁吉亚列入民主党总统候选人名单，拉斐尔·沃诺克和乔恩·奥索夫不久后夺得参议院席位，使民主党控制了国会山。

现在，艾布拉姆斯和沃诺克首次并列民主党候选人榜首，该党试图在艰难的中期选举中复制其成功。选举结果将再次有助于决定华盛顿的权力平衡，以及共和党人是否能保持他们在州政府中的主导地位。

艾布拉姆斯周六对民主党州代表大会的代表们说:“我们将藐视所有的反对者，把我们的州一路带回来。”"佐治亚州的民主党人，我们还有未竟的事业要处理."

然而，民主党领导人承认，2022年不是过去两个周期的简单重演。

艾布拉姆斯在州长竞选中与布莱恩·坎普(Brian Kemp)再次对决，她的对手不是一位鲜为人知的共和党国务卿，而是一位处境良好的现任国务卿。不再是政治新人的沃诺克正试图将自己与曾经为他助选的相对不受欢迎的总统区分开来。挑战者赫歇尔·沃克(Herschel Walker)批评沃诺克是白宫的橡皮图章，不遗余力地试图证明这一点。

其余的民主党候选人必须在一个全国性政党的旗帜下竞选，这个政党在持续的通货膨胀和不确定的经济时期控制着华盛顿。民主党人必须重组他们的选民投票操作，以遵守肯普和共和党领导的立法机构在民主党2020年获胜后颁布的更严格的投票限制。

民主党人说，回应不是逃避他们的记录，而是接受它，同时将共和党描绘成一个“极端主义”的政党，推进一个不合拍的文化议程，并仍然受制于前总统唐纳德·特朗普.

“特朗普的政党是一个极端主义的政党，一个否认选举的政党，一个威权主义的政党，”副州长提名人查理·贝利(Charlie Bailey)在大会召开前表示。

在周六的舞台上，贝利提醒代表们，他的共和党对手伯特·琼斯(Burt Jones)是假选举人之一，他们签署了虚假的证书，声称特朗普(而不是拜登)赢得了他们的州。“如果你寻求推翻美国政府，你不适合，你没有资格在这个国家担任任何职务，”贝利说。"毫无疑问，今年11月的民主就在选票上."

这种做法与拜登周四在马里兰州的一次竞选集会上发表的全国宣传相一致，他在11月份将选民的选择框定在民主党人和特朗普的“马加运动”之间，这是共和党的一个主导倾向，拜登说这类似于“半法西斯主义”。

坎普和佐治亚州国务卿、共和党人布拉德·拉芬斯佩格因抵制川普推翻2020年大选的企图而赢得了温和派选民的喝彩。但是艾布拉姆斯和其他人质疑这两个人的“温和”标签。

艾布拉姆斯批评坎普是一个“极端主义者”，他签署了一项秘密携带法，以放松枪支限制和一项近乎全面的堕胎禁令，禁止在怀孕六周后，在许多妇女知道自己怀孕之前进行堕胎。

挑战Raffensperger的立法者Bee Nguyen抨击国务卿改革州投票程序。Nguyen指出，Raffensperger作为一名州议员，在堕胎和枪支等问题上有着坚定的保守主义记录。

“我们可以建立一个我们相信民主的格鲁吉亚，”阮周六告诉大会代表。"你不能不公正地划分全州的席位."

佐治亚州民主党人表示，最高法院取消宪法赋予堕胎权利的决定，加上佐治亚州即将颁布的禁令，是一个足以克服摇摆选民对经济担忧的关键问题。

“我会告诉你，人们更关心的是保护他们的权利和他们获得医疗保健的机会，而不是其他任何事情，”司法部长提名人、州参议员珍·乔丹(Jen Jordan)说，她将支持堕胎权作为自己竞选的核心。

坎普抨击艾布拉姆斯是一个想要“解除警察基金”的自由主义者。艾布拉姆斯提出了增加许多执法和刑事司法人员工资的建议。“布莱恩·肯普想让你害怕我，”她在一则广告中说道。

乔丹公开谈论犯罪增加，但对共和党人试图将其描述为“亚特兰大问题”的努力不屑一顾——共和党的框架瞄准了人口多样化和高度民主党化的城市以外的白人选民。

“这不是一个城市或郊区的问题。这是格鲁吉亚的问题，负责人有很多责任，”乔丹说。

在参议院竞选中，沃诺克基本上避开了拜登，即使他欢迎民主党的立法胜利。沃诺克引用疫情救济法案及其儿童税收抵免作为对佐治亚州家庭的关键援助。他列举了长期寻求的基础设施一揽子计划带来的好处。

这位参议员承认，汽油价格和总体通胀已经飙升，但他指出，他呼吁暂停联邦汽油税，然后赢得了民主党大气候和医疗保健法案中一项条款的通过，该条款限制了医疗保险患者的胰岛素价格。共和党人阻止了他将上限扩大到所有消费者的努力。

“今天我们一起站在这个山顶上，”沃诺克在民主党代表大会上对他们说。“明天我们去山谷，直到我们为每个人的胰岛素价格设定上限，直到我们为所有格鲁吉亚人降低价格。”

2018年，在大约400万张选票中，坎普以55，000张选票领先艾布拉姆斯。在500万张选票中，拜登以不到12，000票的优势超过特朗普。在两个月后同时进行的参议院决选中，大约450万格鲁吉亚人参加了投票;沃诺克和奥索夫分别以2个百分点和1.2个百分点胜出。

民主党人希望11月的选民至少与2021年1月5日的选民一样多。佐治亚州需要多数票才能赢得全州的职位，自由派候选人可以获得足够的票数来进行决选。

考虑到这一点，来自亚特兰大的黑人女性艾布拉姆斯在农村度过了相当长的时间，那里大多是白人佐治亚州，与民主党在以前的中期选举中的表现相比，她在2018年失去了优势。白人乔丹指出，她在南乔治亚的一个小镇长大，但现在代表亚特兰大郊区的一个州参议院选区，该选区曾被共和党控制。艾布拉姆斯有时和贝利一起竞选，贝利是一个带有明显南方口音的白人，来自佐治亚州的一个小镇。Nguyen讲述了她的父母作为政治难民逃离越南的故事。

“和我站在一起是佐治亚州有史以来最不寻常的票，”艾布拉姆斯在大会发言前说。“它看起来像格鲁吉亚;听起来像佐治亚州;它知道格鲁吉亚。”

Abrams, Georgia Dems call midterms 'unfinished business'

COLUMBUS, Ga. --Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a contested primary for governor because the party's old guard didn’t believe in Stacey Abrams. She routed their alternative and, in a close generalelectionloss, established herself as de facto party boss in a newfound battleground state.

That previewed 2020, when Joe Biden put Georgia in Democrats’ presidential column for the first time in 28 years, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff captured Senate seats soon after to give Democrats control on Capitol Hill.

Now Abrams and Warnock top the Democratic ticket together for the first time as the party tries to replicate its success in a tough midterm election landscape. The outcome will again help determine the balance of power in Washington and whether Republicans retain their dominance in state government.

“We're going to defy all the naysayers and take our state all the way back,” Abrams told delegates to the Democratic state convention Saturday. “Georgia Democrats, we've got unfinished business to take care of.”

Yet Democratic leaders acknowledge that 2022 is not a simple replay of the last two cycles.

Abrams, in her governor's race rematch with Brian Kemp, is not running against a little-known Republican secretary of state but a well-positioned incumbent. Warnock, no longer a political newcomer, is trying to distinguish himself from a relatively unpopular president who once campaigned for him. That's a point that challenger Herschel Walker relentlessly seeks to make by criticizing Warnock as a rubber-stamp for the White House.

The rest of the Democratic ticket must run under the banner of a national party that controls Washington at a time of sustained inflation and an uncertain economy. And Democrats must retool their voter turnout operation to comply with tighter voting restrictions that Kemp and the Republican-led legislature enacted after Democrats’ 2020 victories.

The response, Democrats say, isn’t to run from their record but to embrace it, while portraying Republicans as an “extremist” party that advances an out-of-step cultural agenda and remains in thrall to former PresidentDonald Trump.

“The party of Trump is a party of extremism, a party of election deniers, a party of authoritarianism,” Charlie Bailey, the nominee for lieutenant governor, said ahead of the convention.

On stage Saturday, Bailey reminded delegates that his GOP opponent, Burt Jones, is among the fake electors who signed certificates falsely stating that Trump, not Biden, had won their states. “If you seek to overthrow the United States government, you are not fit, you are not qualified to hold any office in this country,” Bailey said. “Make no mistake, this November democracy is on the ballot.”

The approach aligns with the national pitch that Biden made Thursday at a campaign rally in Maryland, where he framed voters’ choice in November as being between Democrats and Trump’s “MAGA movement,” a dominant strain of the GOP that Biden said resembles “semi-fascism.”

Kemp and Georgia's secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, have garnered plaudits from moderate voters for bucking Trump's bid to overturn the 2020 election. But Abrams and others challenge the “moderate” label for either man.

Abrams criticizes Kemp as an “extremist” who signed a concealed carry law to loosen gun restrictions and a near-total abortion ban that bars the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant.

Bee Nguyen, a legislator challenging Raffensperger, hammers the secretary of state for his part in overhauling state voting procedures. Nguyen notes that Raffensperger, as a state lawmaker, compiled a staunchly conservative record on abortion and guns, among other matters.

“We can build a Georgia where we believe in democracy," Nguyen told convention delegates Saturday. “You can't gerrymander the statewide seats.”

Georgia Democrats say the Supreme Court’s decision eliminating a constitutional right to access abortion, combined with Georgia’s near ban, is a critical enough issue to overcome swing voters’ worries about the economy.

“I’ll tell you that people are much more concerned about protecting their rights and their access to health care than anything else,” said attorney general nominee Jen Jordan, a state senator who has made her support of abortion rights a centerpiece of her bid.

Kemp blasts Abrams as a liberal who wants to “defund the police.” Abrams counters with proposals that would increase salaries for many law enforcement and criminal justice personnel. “Brian Kemp wants you to be afraid of me,” she says in one of her advertisements.

Jordan talks openly of crime increases but dismisses Republicans’ effort to cast it as “an Atlanta problem” — GOP framing aimed at white voters beyond the demographically diverse and heavily Democratic city.

“It’s not an urban problem or a suburban problem. It’s a Georgia problem, and the people who have been in charge have a lot to answer for,” Jordan said.

In the Senate campaign, Warnock has largely steered clear of Biden, even as he embraces Democrats' legislative victories. Warnock cites a pandemic relief bill and its child tax credit as critical aid to Georgia families. He cites benefits from a long-sought infrastructure package.

The senator acknowledges that gas prices and general inflation have spiked but notes that he called for a suspension of the federal gas tax and then won passage of a provision in the Democrats' big climate and health care bill that caps the price of insulin for Medicare patients. Republicans blocked his effort to extend the cap to all consumers.

“Today we stand on this mountaintop together,” Warnock told Democratic delegates at their convention. “Tomorrow we go down in the valley until we cap the cost of insulin for everybody, until we lower the costs for all Georgians.”

In 2018, Kemp topped Abrams by 55,000 votes out of about 4 million cast. Biden outpaced Trump by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. In concurrent Senate runoffs two months later, about 4.5 million Georgians voted; Warnock and Ossoff won by 2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points, respectively.

Democrats hope the November electorate is at least as large as that on Jan. 5, 2021. Georgia requires a majority vote to win statewide office, and Libertarian candidates can draw enough to force a runoff.

With that in mind, Abrams, a Black woman from Atlanta, has spent a noticeable amount of time in rural, mostly white Georgia, where she lost ground in 2018 compared with Democrats’ performances in previous midterms. Jordan, who is white, notes that she grew up in small-town south Georgia but now represents a suburban Atlanta state Senate district that had been a Republican lock. Abrams sometimes campaigns alongside Bailey, a white man with a pronounced Southern accent and small-town Georgia roots. Nguyen tells of her parents fleeing Vietnam as political refugees.

“Standing with me is the most extraordinary ticket Georgia has ever produced,” Abrams said before she addressed the convention. “It looks like Georgia; it sounds like Georgia; it knows Georgia.”