"Chooses!" stands in big white letters on a house wall in Atlanta, the capital of the US state of Georgia. Underneath is the face of Stacey Abrams. Colossal. The Democrat looks combative. Not without reason: Before her lies nothing less than the seemingly impossible: Stacey Abrams wants to become the first black governor in the US, even in a federal state that is traditionally right for the Republicans. For white men.
With the mural, the hometown of Martin Luther King has set a memorial to a new African American icon. In liberal Atlanta, Stacey Abrams has almost won. Many people cheer the democrat on the street, pushing with her for selfies together.
But if she wants to become Governor of Georgia in this week's intermediate elections, that's not enough. Abrams needs to mobilize as many black voters as never before: 90 percent. And she has to succeed in convincing some of the white voters who usually vote for the Republicans - about 25 percent. Throughout Georgia, even in the country. To this assessment, the data journalists of the US news site "FiveThirtyEight" came.
Midterm elections in the US
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That's not the only reason why Abrams starts her bus tour through Georgia on this Monday morning at seven o'clock. She stands on a stage in the small town of Macon, in the so-called "heartland" of the state. Here, incomes are low and unemployment is high. Many people live below the poverty line. Macon is like Atlanta a blue island in a red sea. Blue is the color of the Democrats, red is the Republican.
Yale graduate, novelist - and now politician
Almost 59 percent of voters voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election. About 52 percent of the population is black. It's places like Macon where Stacey Abrams is a figurehead. A young African American has tears in his eyes as he hears her speak. He has already knocked on ex-President Barack Obama at the doors of his neighbors and advertising. With Stacey, he says, it feels very similar.
Abrams is an unusual candidate. She is 44, single, has no children, but has a brother who used to be in prison. She studied law at the elite Yale University, then wrote romance novels under a pseudonym and co-founded several startups. To this day, according to their own statements, they still stutter the debts from their studies. She wants to show that she is one of the people and still wants to make it to the political top of her state.
Young, progressive, black, female
Her candidacy symbolizes the future of the Democrats: she is progressive, black and a woman who inspires many African Americans across the US. Talk show icon Oprah Winfrey has been knocking on the doors of voters for Abrams just a few days ago. Obama helped in the final election campaign. Less than one percent Abrams separates according to extrapolations of her Republican opponent Brian Kemp.
AFP
Abrams with TV star Oprah Winfrey
"Vote now," shouts Stacey Abrams on stage in Macon, "so you can drive your neighbors to polling stations on November 6!" Abrams means that literally. For years, controversy has been around voter registrations in Georgia and other states.
Abrams opponent Kemp, for example, is a Cabinet member responsible for a law that currently withholds 53,000 registrations - mostly from blacks. The Exact Match Law complicates voter registration because it invalidates registrations for even the slightest deviation between registration form and driver's license - whether hyphen or new address.
1.5 million voters were removed from the lists under Kemp's supervision as election leaders between 2012 and 2015. About eight percent of the polling stations in Georgia have since been closed. Especially in poor areas where many African Americans live. The topic has become a scandal in the US, Abrams demands that Kemp resign from the cabinet. Most recently, he accused his rival of "cybercrime" without providing any evidence.
Rural Georgia chooses the Republicans
The farther the road from the capital Atlanta heads south, the fewer Stacey Abrams signs are in the gardens. On the radio run advertising sports for the Republicans Kemp, next to the entrances of the large cotton, peanut and peanut farms are the signs with his name. "If you're into abortion and hate guns - choose Stacey Abrams," it says in a radio ad. Abram's campaign van left the blue island. She is now in the middle of "Trump Country".
Next stop: Dublin. Under the roof of a covered market, African Americans waving their breath with Stacey Abrams signs. In the sun, a white couple demonstrated for the preservation of the Confederate monuments and against Abrams. Behind them, a third white face appears, that of Kari Murphy, the only white Democrat in the area.
"Blacks will vote for Stacey White choose Kemp"
The 55-year-old has put on her farm in her white convertible and drove 30 minutes to Dublin to see Abrams. Now she is looking for other white democrats. Vain.
Murphy believes in Abrams because she is fighting for a judiciary reform, for health care reform Obamacare and for public schools. Over the past few days, Murphy has tried to persuade her friends to accompany her to Dublin.
But many dare not show up at a Democratic event or hold their conviction, she says. Even Murphy's son is one of them. He believes Abrams will raise taxes. In 2016, Murphy Junior voted for Trump as the majority in the area. "Blacks will vote for Stacey, whites choose Kemp," says Mother Murphy.
"I want to become governor of all of Georgia!", Abrams shouts into the crowd several times that day. Every time her voice trembles. Abrams once promised to "speak to every one in the state".
It was worth it: on the first day of the early vote 200 percent more people voted, as in the last governor election. By the end of the first week, voter turnout in the Gwinnett and Cobb County African-American communities already exceeded voter turnout in the recent presidential election.
This is remarkable even for the United States of 2018, a deeply divided country with highly motivated electorate in both political camps.