THOMASVILLE — Stacey Abrams reminded a room full of supporters Wednesday night they had 13 days left.

Abrams urged the more than 200 people who came to her Early Voting Rally at Receptions for You to vote early and to get as many others as they can to the polls or to vote early.

Abrams, who is the Democrat nominee for governor, is running against Brian Kemp, the current Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican nominee and Libertarian Ted Metz. Her Thomasville appearance ended a five-city swing Wednesday that started in Thomaston.

“But where I want to end up is in the Governor’s Mansion,” she said. “And I’m here because I know our pathway to the governor’s office comes right through Thomasville.”

Abrams told the crowd the state is at a crossroads.

“This is a choice about whether we are a state that moves forward or a state that goes backward,” she said. “If you listen to my opponent, he wants the voting rights of 1963, the medical care of 1883 and he wants an economic plan that doesn’t seem to have a time or a place.”

Abrams said she is the only candidate with a plan to invest in: “high-quality child care, including a scholarship that makes sure a family doesn’t pay more than 7 to 10 percent of their income. We can’t just talk about building a better future. We’ve got to invest in that future.”

Abrams also continued her call for the state to approve an expansion of Medicaid.

“Medicaid expansion is a $3 billion investment in Georgia families, and half a million Georgians are being denied health care because they are too poor to make it,” she said. “But you shouldn’t be too poor to be healthy in the state of Georgia. The thing of it is, we’re paying for it, one way or another.”

Abrams, who was state House Minority Leader before running for governor, said the cost of uncompensated care in Georgia is $1.7 billion annually. She also said Medicaid expansion will create 56,000 jobs, the majority of which will be outside the metro Atlanta area.

“We are only one of 17 states that refused to solve it because our leaders, our Republican leaders, have been too mean and too cheap to take it,” she said.

Abrams also called on the state to break what she termed the “school to prison pipeline.”

“That means investing in the whole child, making sure that children who are having challenges get the help they need before they become a danger to themselves or others,” she said.

Abrams also wants to repeal the Campus Carry act passed by the state Legislature. She also said she doesn’t want to get rid of the Second Amendment and told the crowd how she learned to fire a shotgun from her grandmother in Mississippi.

“The next leader of Georgia has to understand that our children cannot be safe if we refuse to acknowledge that guns are part of what puts them in danger,” Abrams said.

Abrams also reiterated her plan to create 22,000 apprenticeships in the state by 2022 and said she wanted to see technical college be free in the state and added she wants college in the state be debt-free for students.

“We have to have pathways to post-secondary education,” she said. 

Abrams praised the HOPE Scholarship but said its recipients having to maintain a B scholarship is a flaw.

The state also can create new jobs by expanding into renewable energy and advanced energy, Abrams declared.

“Climate change is real,” she said. “If we acknowledge it, then we can start to make money in the state of Georgia with pushing forward on renewable energy jobs.”

Abrams commended Gov. Nathan Deal, who is reaching his limit of two terms as governor, for bringing new companies to the state. 

“But we are No. 22 out of 25 when it comes to taking care of the Main Street businesses already here,” she said. “Not all of us can be a member of a bank that loans us $800,000 we won’t have to pay back. For the rest of us, we need a governor who will be a co-signer on your dreams and an investor in your future.”

Abrams also asked that voters choose not just because she is African-American or a woman.

“We are 13 days away from glory, 13 days away from victory, 13 days away from history,” she said. “In 13 days, we can elect the first African-American woman to serve as governor in the history of the United States. But I don’t want anyone to vote for me because I am black. I don’t want anyone to vote for me because I’m a woman. You should vote for me because I’m better and I’m the only one with a plan for the future of Georgia.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.