Stacey Abrams visits South Georgia: Reviews plans for reforms

Jul. 18—TIFTON — Stacy Abrams promised to support teachers, secure women's reproductive rights and bring Medicaid to more eligible Georgia residents during a weekend campaign stop in Tift County.

And several Tifton residents ensured the Democratic gubernatorial candidate received a welcome Sunday fitting of the Friendly City.

Abrams led a campaign rally in The Place right outside of Downtown Tifton to discuss her campaign and plans for reform as well as hear the concerns of some of the people of Georgia.

With a room filled with supporters, Tift County Commissioner Melissa Hughes welcomed Abrams. Hughes spoke extensively on the strength of Abrams' character and mission.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader," Hughes said. "And that's who we have here today: a leader."

Abrams shared the policies and practices she hopes to change if she becomes governor, criticizing many of the current flaws in these policies, such as the inability of Georgia's Medicaid services to support a significant portion of the state population, a lack of support for mental health and a currently poor solution to handling it through law enforcement, and an apparent refusal to properly fund education.

She opposes how education had been addressed in Georgia, saying the recent $5,000 pay bump that Gov. Brian Kemp gave teachers was little more than "an insult."

"For that little increase they got, teachers make less in real dollar terms today than they did in 1999," Abrams said. "For 20 years, Republicans cut, slashed and undercut, and now that they're giving you just a little bit, they're hoping you don't notice they owe you a whole lot more. I'm going to make them pay up."

Abrams said she wants to become the "public education governor," outlining her plans to better invest in rural education, which she stressed sorely needs attention, and putting more focus on gun safety laws to cut back on "hardening" classrooms, asserting that teachers should not be "guards" of children, but "guides."

She said she would make a tremendous push for women's right to an abortion, noting how appalled she is that the topic even needs to be addressed in 2022.

Abrams pointed out numerous flaws in the current policies regarding abortions in Georgia, such as how much it discourages doctors from going through with the process, puts the decisions in the doctors' hands and requires a woman to make a decision on an abortion before she's realistically able to confirm she's pregnant.

In addition, she highlighted how many counties in the state lack proper resources to support women's health, family doctors and surgeons, and how she is determined to remedy this if she becomes governor.

The gubernatorial candidate was critical of actions and decisions made by the Republican Kemp, who is seeking reelection. She said Kemp has refused many of the reforms that she is pushing and that state residents have been seeking, adding the governor claims changes are impossible due to the high costs.

Abrams outlined several reforms, stating they are not only nowhere close to the high price Kemp claims but are even more affordable due to a $6 billion budget surplus in Georgia.

Her speech closed with an anecdote about her grandmother, who, on the first day she was allowed to vote, was too frozen to do so — not out of a fear of persecution but a fear of confronting a reality that she had been deluded her entire life into believing was a falsehood: that she had the power to leave her own impact on the government and change what had been set in stone.

"We've got to reach out across Georgia," Abrams said. "We've got to reach out and let people know that their power is real, that this opportunity is real, that one Georgia is real. Because if we do this, at 2022, one Georgia will rise, I will become governor, and we will change the world."

Following her presentation, Abrams opened the floor for questions.

Many questions touched on policies she planned to bring massive reform to, such as her initiative to hold officers accountable for their actions, which would help curtail discrimination and abuse of power, a multitiered plan that would take care of Georgians with housing issues, and an increase in safety protocols, including an increase in background checks and less emphasis on guns in the classroom.

Abrams drew on much of her own familial experiences for her answers, recounting the dichotomy of her two brothers — one who had been arrested, put in jail, and released but was set up to reenter prison due to a lack of staffing in the penal system; the other a social worker who still had to deal with being pulled over simply for being Black — and her 16-year-old niece, who she shuddered to imagine in a class with a teacher who not only carried a gun, but was expected to use it to protect her.

The rally closed with Abrams assuring Tifton residents that she would not only continue to work to become governor and enact reform but she would ensure reforms would benefit everyone in Georgia.

"We live in a state of opportunity," Abrams said. "But as long as the man in charge of that state doesn't believe opportunity belongs to all of us, we're not going anywhere but backwards."