Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams sat down with NBC News’ Blayne Alexander for a new interview, in which she underscored the importance Georgia will play up and down the ballot in November.
“Georgia is essential. We know that Raphael Warnock is going to be essential to holding the Senate. We know that Sanford Bishop’s race down in the 2nd District can be part of the puzzle to holding the House,” she said.
“For women in particular, Georgia is going to be vital, because every single state in the South has been on a rampage to make abortion difficult, if not impossible, to get, and having me elected as governor can change the future for women in the state and in this region.”
Despite Democratic inroads in the state in recent years, most notably their success in the 2021 Senate runoffs, new polling shows Abrams struggling to close the gap with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Warnock locked in an extremely tight race against Republican Herschel Walker.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail:
Florida Senate: Democratic Rep. Val Demings will not attend Biden’s rally next week with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, NBC News’ Marc Caputo and Natasha Korecki report. Democratic Rep. Val Demings authored one of the bills that’s included in a policing and public safety package that the House is voting on this week. Demings has made her background in law enforcement central to her campaign.
Georgia Senate: The new Monmouth poll finds Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock with a higher favorability rating, 48% to 44%, than Republican Herschel Walker, who 42% of registered Georgia voters viewed favorably while 48% viewed him unfavorably.
Pennsylvania Senate: A Philadelphia Inquirer analysis shows that Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman outspent Republican Mehmet Oz 38-to-1 on Facebook ads from mid-May through mid-September. On the campaign trail, Fetterman also announced that he’s campaigning on Saturday with Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, who is in a competitive re-election race.
Nevada Senate: Club for Growth Action, a GOP-aligned group, booked $3.2 million in television ads over the next two weeks.
Wisconsin Senate: Some Democrats are concerned that Republicans are outspending Democrats in Wisconsin’s Senate race, per HuffPost.
California Governor: Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, placed his first ad buy of the general election, worth over $1 million, per AdImpact.
Connecticut Governor: A new Quinnipiac poll of likely Connecticut voters finds they overwhelmingly back Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont over Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski, 57% — 40%.
Iowa-03: Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne voted by proxy for the Inflation Reduction Act, and Fox News reported that Axne was on a family trip to France at the time, per her son’s Instagram post. Fox says Axne did not respond to its request for comment.
Michigan-03: Republican John Gibbs wrote sexist comments on the website of a “think tank” he founded while at Stanford University, including that “the United States has suffered as a result of women’s suffrage,” CNN reports. Gibbs’ spokesperson dismissed the website as “nothing more than a college kid being over the top.”
New Hampshire-01: Republican Karoline Leavitt is up with a new spot focused solely on inflation, as Democrats try to hit her for being too close to Trump. The inflation focus matches the theme of a new Congressional Leadership Fund ad in the district.
New York-22: Democrat Francis Conole is up with a new spot that highlights his military service and criticizes “both parties [for] putting corporate greed ahead of people.”
Ohio-09: The Associated Press reports that while Republican J.R. Majewski has said he served in Afghanistan as a combat veteran after 9/11, military records do not show him deployed to the country or in a combat zone.
