Progressive group steps in to boost Abrams among Black male voters

A Democratic advocacy group launched a radio ad in Georgia on Tuesday to boost support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams among Black male voters, amid concerns of declining support.

The new ad from People For the American Way is part of a larger multiplatform campaign by the organization in Georgia to drum up support for Abrams and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the last four weeks of the midterm elections.

Tuesday’s ad aims to show that GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Senate candidate Herschel Walker are “the wrong choices for Black male voters in Georgia,” the group said in a press release.

“Look — I know she’s not your favorite,” one man says in the ad of Abrams. “But Brian Kemp? You gotta watch what he does, not just what he says.”

The ad points to Kemp’s opposition to expanding Medicaid coverage in the state and his decision to end pandemic-related unemployment benefits from the federal government.

The ad also takes aim at recent allegations that Walker, who has positioned himself as a strong anti-abortion candidate, paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009. Walker has denied the allegations.

“Dude! That brother’s not right … who asks his girlfriend to get an abortion one day and then says we should outlaw all abortion the next?” the man in the ad says. ”Listen — things are getting real. We’ve gotta look out for us. I’m definitely voting, just not for those jokers.”

Abrams on Sunday dismissed concerns that support for her among Black Georgians has diminished as a “manufactured crisis” that is “designed to suppress turnout.”

When Abrams ran for governor in 2018, she received the support of about 93 percent of Black voters. Her support among Black men was slightly lower, with 88 percent supporting Abrams in that election compared to the 97 percent of Black women that backed her.

In contrast, a recent poll from the Atlanta Journal Constitution found that this year, 79 percent of Black voters backed Abrams, and that support dropped to 75 percent among Black men.

Recent polling has showed Kemp pulling ahead of Abrams. The incumbent governor held a 5-point lead over Abrams in new polling from InsiderAdvantage and Fox 5 released on Thursday, and a 7-point lead in a Fox News poll from late September. However, a Quinnipiac University poll from mid-September found the race too close to call, with the two separated by just 2 points.