Carter, Abrams: Georgians From 2 Eras Chase Rural Votes

Former President Jimmy Carter and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speak to reporters during a news conference to announce her rural health care plan Tuesday in Plains, Georgia. Abrams faces Republican Brian Kemp in the November election to be Georgia’s next governor.

John Bazemore / Associated PRess

Georgia’s past and its potential future converged in the tiny town of Plains, as former President Jimmy Carter campaigned Tuesday alongside Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams.

Despite their starkly different biographies — he the 93-year-old peanut farmer who entered Deep South politics amid Jim Crow segregation, she the 44-year-old Atlanta attorney who’d be the first black female governor in U.S. history — the pair of Democratic politicians cited a shared interest in reversing the slide in rural health care services.

And Abrams hopes that emphasis can net her just enough improvement in heavily Republican rural Georgia to boost her chances of an upset over her GOP challenger, Brian Kemp, in a state that looks to be on the cusp of becoming a two-party battleground.