In Trump-like move, Abrams campaign challenges crowd size estimate

Georgia Democrats have gotten short shrift in terms of attention ahead of the May 24 primary.

With the bitter Brian Kemp-David Perdue feud in the Georgia GOP governor's race and the odd-and-unorthodox Herschel Walker U.S. Senate campaign, there's little room in the public's consciousness for non-competitive races - such as those facing top-of-the-ticket Democrats Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock.

Abrams is running unopposed for governor and Warnock is polling 80 points ahead of his primary challenger.

Last week, we learned the apathy just might be bothering the Abrams' camp.

One of our reporters, Raisa Habersham, is tasked with covering Abrams this election cycle. After brainstorming story ideas several weeks back, she was assigned a piece exploring at the energy and excitement around Abrams given that she is running unopposed in the primary.

All of us remember the buzz around Abrams four years ago when she ran for governor and again in 2020 when she campaigned for Warnock as well as Jon Ossoff and Joe Biden. Is she being met with the same enthusiasm now? If not, how much risk does that pose for the general election? Or is it because she's running opposed and the support will build in the months ahead?

Habersham called the political pros around the state and got their insights. Then she attended an Abrams' rally here in Savannah to get a feel for the energy around the candidate. The event was telling - sparsely attended and hosted in the parking lot of a local restaurant.

Both Habersham and another staffer who went to the rally pegged the crowd at approximately 75 attendees.

When the story published last week, Habersham got an email from the Abrams' camp. They challenged the count, saying 120 attendees registered. They asked for a correction.

After talking to attendees and looking at photos from the rally, we told the campaign we'd be glad to add the registration info to the story but that we stand behind our crowd estimate. The campaign staffer thanked us for our time and hung up.

His next call must have been to our colleagues at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. as their reporters noted in their Friday morning newsletter, "The Jolt", that Abrams' reps called them to say the Savannah Morning News had erroneously reported the crowd. They told the AJC the crowd was closer to 125, not 75 as we had reported or 120 as they told Habersham and one of our editors.

So why is the Abrams' campaign so fixated on a discrepancy from a primary election rally held in Savannah? Does 120 - or 125 - sound all that much better than 75 for a candidate with a national profile? Does this reflect any potential concerns the campaign has about the energy around Abrams?

Regardless, the situation is reminiscent of Donald Trump's nonsense claims about the crowds at his 2016 presidential inauguration.

My professional opinion is Abrams will easily recapture the energy she enjoyed in 2016 and 2020 heading into the general election. Voting is six months away, and we don't even know the identity of her opponent yet. She'll have all the campaign funds she needs, and the threat to abortion rights has energized Democrats.

Come September and October, Abrams will draw thousands to rallies across the state. Her campaign staff surely knows that, which makes their current quibbling all the more perplexing.

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— Written by Opinion Editor Adam Van Brimmer. Read more posts like this in the Savannah Town Square Facebook group.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Stacey Abrams is running unopposed for GA governor among Democrats