ROME, Ga. -- Stacey Abrams hopes to become the first black woman ever elected governor in the United States.
Abrams, a former minority leader of the Georgia House, is also testing a risky campaign strategy: that a Democrat can win a statewide election in the Deep South without relying on the conservative-leaning white voters long considered essential.
"The approach of trying to create a coalition that is centered around converting Republicans has failed Democrats in the state of Georgia for the last 15 years," Abrams said after mingling with diners in Rome, a town in north Georgia.
Her rival in Tuesday's Democratic primary, former state Rep. Stacey Evans, has scorned Abrams' strategy as unrealistic and "unhealthy for democracy."
The dispute between the two well-regarded contenders is not merely the latest Democratic feud over how to break the Republican lock on the South. The stark differences in strategy -- and the choice of candidates themselves -- reflect the conflict among Democrats over the types of voters and the kinds of politicians that the party should elevate in the Trump era.
Democratic candidates nationwide are wrestling with whether they should try to reclaim some of President Donald Trump's supporters or try to maximize support from their racially diverse, liberal base. Abrams' New Georgia Project, founded in 2014, says that potential Democratic voters -- racial minorities, anyone ages 18 to 29, and unmarried women of all ages -- make up 62 percent of the voting-age population in Georgia, but only 53 percent of registered voters.
If Abrams wins Tuesday and goes on to win in November, Trump opponents would seize on that victory as proof of a Trump backlash.
"It would be earth-shattering," said Shirley Franklin, who was the first black female mayor of Atlanta. "And it would be a breakthrough for other people, not just for African-Americans, but for Hispanics and Asians."
Still, Abrams, 44, could be vulnerable to other lines of attack in a general election. She lent her campaign $50,000 even while she owed $50,000 in back taxes, and she has called for the removal of the Confederate carvings on the side of Atlanta's Stone Mountain.
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University, said Abrams could claim a "moral victory" if she makes it to the November election and points to a way forward for Democrats. Nonwhite residents are the "growth market" for Democratic votes, given the state's long-term demographic shifts, Gillespie said.
Abrams, though, was emphatic that she's running to win.
"I do not run for office as some sort of quixotic endeavor," she said.
A Section on 05/20/2018