Georgia Democrats are getting anxious as they await the decision of former state representative Stacey Abrams on whether she will seek the party's nomination for governor in the 2022 election.
''I think she still has a little bit of time,'' one Democratic strategist told The Hill on Monday.
''The minute she announces [her run for governor], she is automatically the candidate to beat. The problem is, I think that keeps everything in kind of a holding pattern when we really need to be aggressive and proactive in Georgia.''
Abrams narrowly lost the race for governor in 2018 to Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp by almost 55,000 votes, but refused to concede the race initially, claiming that the former secretary used his position to suppress votes in the race.
"I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election," NPR reported Abrams saying at the time in her concession speech. "But to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on suppression of the people's democratic right to vote has been truly appalling."
According to a November 2020 article in USA Today, Kemp removed 1.4 million ''inactive'' voters from the state rolls during his tenure as secretary of state, including 668,000 in the year before the 2018 election, a move that the publication said affected mostly low-income and minority voters.
Abrams has yet to announce if she plans to run again, making some of the state's Democrats nervous that they may not be able to launch a successful campaign in time for the general election.
According to The Hill, DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, a Democrat, said that he was considering a run for the office himself, but would not want to get in the way should she decide to run again.
''I'm always interested. Listen, hope springs eternal in every political heart, right?'' he said on Georgia Public Broadcasting's ''Political Rewind.'' ''[But] Stacey has earned the right to challenge Brian Kemp. She ran a great race four years ago. There were questions about the administration of the election, and she has a right to make a decision and to challenge him, and I'm going to respect that.''
Since her defeat, Abrams has worked on behalf of voting rights and supported Democrat Terry McAuliffe in his bid for governor in Virgina.
She has also been nominated for a seat on the board of directors for the solar firm Heliogen with entrepreneur Phyllis Newhouse, the company announced Monday.
''We are forming a world-class Board of Directors to partner with our outstanding executive leadership team, and the additions of Stacey and Phyllis will be invaluable to advance Heliogen's mission of replacing fossil fuels with concentrated sunlight," company founder and CEO Bill Gross said in a statement.
In a statement, Abrams said that the company is on ''a mission'' to ''empower a sustainable civilization.''
''To respond, we must develop and scale innovative solutions that decarbonize our planet while creating economic opportunity and prosperity for all,'' Abrams' statement said.
''Technologies like those pioneered by Heliogen offer a dynamic answer, and I am proud to join Bill, Phyllis and the talented Heliogen team on its mission to empower a sustainable civilization with low-cost solar energy that makes clean power more affordable and accessible.''
© 2022 Newsmax. All rights reserved.