ATLANTA — Another round of candidates officially completed the process to get their names on ballots this year at the State Capitol Tuesday.
11Alive caught up with Stacey Abrams as she signed her paperwork and handed over her fee to run in Georgia's gubernatorial race.
"I am excited to qualify for office today to run for Governor of Georgia because I believe we deserve a leader who loves all of Georgia, even the ones who don't agree with us," Abrams said. "More importantly, we need a leader who sees the future for Georgia. One where everybody has opportunity to thrive and where we treat the state as one Georgia, not as separate divided parts or people with too many differences, but a place where differences make us stronger."
Right now, no other Democrats have declared they'll challenge her in the primary. This is her second time running for governor after narrowly losing to Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018.
"When I ran for governor in 2018, I ran on a platform of opportunity for all, wanting to ensure that we expand Medicaid, that we fully and permanently fund education, that we build economic development plans that work for every Georgian. Sadly, those are still the issues that we need to focus on," she said. "The last four years of inaction and ineptitude by the current governor means that I'm simply trying again to do what's right for Georgia and I believe that this time we'll get it done."
Abrams added the past two years of the pandemic and the current economic crisis have led to challenges.
"The reality is that we are facing challenges, we are facing economic challenges. People are also anxious and depressed, we need a leader who acknowledges the legitimacy of their fears and their feelings. But we also need a leader who has the vision for what comes next and I have both," Abrams said. "We need a governor who believes in all of Georgia, that's why I'm running and that's what I believe we can deliver."
Abrams also addressed redistricting across the country and in Georgia. She said while it has been "on balance" and generally "a fair one for the country," she added redistricting looks different in Georgia.
"We know that in pockets of our country including the state of Georgia there have been aggressive attacks on communities of color that should not be sustainable. And that means that we've got to fight harder to make certain that every voice is heard in this country, especially in the state of Georgia," she said.
If Abrams were to win, she would make history as Georgia's first Black governor and would become the first Black woman to become governor anywhere in the United States.
Republican front runners Gov. Kemp and David Perdue are both expected to qualify in the next two days for the GOP primary.