As Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp battle each other in governor’s race, Stacey Abrams awaits for GOP nominee

ALBANY — As Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp fight it out in the sandbox for the GOP nomination for governor, Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams swings lazily in the playground swing set eating popcorn and watching the boys batter one another.

Abrams crushed challenger Stacey Evans in May’s two-person democratic primary while Cagle and Kemp emerged from a four-man GOP field and are headed to a July 24 runoff. Adding spice to the Republican race is a secret recording of Cagle made by fourth-place finisher Clay Tippins, which he gave to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Cagle has been trying to soft pedal the fallout the controversial education measure he called on the audio bad “a thousand different ways” to block a super political action committee from pouring $3 million into former state Sen. Hunter Hill’s gubernatorial campaign.

The measurel, House Bill 217, raised the cap on tax credits for donations to private schools from $65 million to $100 million.

In the meantime, the Abrams was watching from afar, and if she’s been paying attention to the dust-up, she won’t admit it.

“I think the Republicans are trying to win a primary runoff and I am trying to focus on leading Georgia,” she said Thursday. “I have my own vision about what we need to be doing and I can’t pay attention to that. When the Republicans sort out amongst themselves who they want to put into this race, I will look forward to dealing with my opponent, hoping he can have a fair hearing, and I can still win.”

The former House Minority Leader said she understands she must do well in the southern part of the state. The Second Congressional District, which runs from south Columbus to the Florida line, is solidly blue. The I-75 corridor is a bit more iffy.

“Winning in Georgia means talking to every single community no matter where they are,” Abrams said. “But it’s also about increasing the number of people who turn out and vote across the state of Georgia. What we demonstrated on May 22 is that we have very strong rapport across the state and I am going to spend my time during the general campaign doing what I did in the primaries.

“We’ll talk about bringing jobs to Georgia and how we’ll do it, increase access to opportunities, particularly along that I-75 corridor. We’ll talk about expanding Medicaid so folks have access to health care.”

She also mentioned expanding educational opportunities for public education.

“I have strongly opposed for my entire legislative career any attempt to siphon off money from public education,” Abrams said. “I think it is absolutely absurd that Georgia approved spending $100 million a year on private schools when we are still underfunding teachers and underfunding transportation in rural Georgia. We’re not providing a quality education for every student in our public school systems. I will absolutely fight to rescind this bill.”

Not only is Abrams hoping to ride a blue wave to the governor’s mansion, she is also hopeful that the recent trend of females running for office nationwide will help drive that tide.

“I want women to vote for me and I also want men to vote for me. The reality is we have to build a coalition of voters across racial demographics and gender across all regions of Georgia,” Abrams said. “This campaign has been built to do so. I talk about the same things every time. I talk about economics, I talk about education and I talk about having a proven track record of leadership.”