it will be donald trump will be partly responsible. either way. reporter: cnn, atlanta. we ll get back to georgia in a moment. i want to also look at florida where there is a racist robocall. we won t play it for a lot of reasons including the reason of children and my friend s 8-year-old is watching and we don t want them to hear this and exacerbate this and very, very big deal in florida and i asked about this. take a listen. i want to make sure we don t racialize and weaponize race as a part of the process which is why i called on my opponent to work to rise above some of these things. it s not surprising to me that this happened. to be quite honest. when you have a desantos basically a mini trump, giving a bear hug to donald trump very early on, making that really bizarre ad where he is telling a
quite decided. reporter: important to the fo formula, the demographic shifts getting younger. proven by recent presidential elections. in 2000, george w. bush won georgia by 12,000. the republican margin decreasing in 2016 when trump won by five points. still president trump s endorse independent a gop runoff helped kemp win by nearly 40 points. light pouring gasoline on the fire we had. reporter: but unlike fellow democrats across the country, abrams rarely invokes the president s name. there s a great deal of concern about whether we ll continue to stand for the values that have made us a strong country. reporter: unspoken or not, there s no avoiding the president s imprint on the race. talking the first wednesday in november and this state has turned blue, who will be responsible for making that happen in the electorate?
in our politics lead, three states could elect their first black governors this november. florida, maryland and georgia are all democratic nominees for their state s howest office n. georgia, the most historically red of the states, republicans are grappling with a changing electorate while democrats test the power of trump in 2018. cnn s kayly hartung reports. we are writing the next chapter of georgia s future. reporter: a democrat looking to become the nation s first black female governor. where you come from shouldn t determine how far you can go. this is about fighting for literally, ladies and gentlemen, the soul of our state this fall. reporter: a republican using every page of the president s playbook. i got a big truck. just in case i need to round up
the next generation. they certainly would. i was very i thought what stacy abrams said was compelling of who she wanted to talk to and who the democratic parties wants to be and should be and are we going to turn out minority voters? are we going to appeal to didn t work well in 2016. we have to do both. that s why she is so compelling. that s why she is an attractive candidate. abrams versus gillum. she said for example the confederate monument issue is not a top issue for her. the education, the economy are issues she cares about. they re very different. they re very different races. in florida, there are two extremes and in georgia both candidates are more sort of playing to the middle. okay. everyone, stand by. john mccain is laid to rest. now the focus is shifting to
criminal illegals and take them home myself. reporter: georgia s gubernatorial candidates opposites. we can repeal campus carry. i own guns. no one s taking away. reporter: this race is about more than the future of the peach state. it s become a microcosm of the political divide in america. this is a warp-up act for america in georgia. reporter: a political reporter for the atlanta journal constitution. democrats want to desperately prove that georgia is a ballot ground state in a way it s not been in a few decades. republicans want to do everything they can to fortify georgia in the red column. reporter: no democrat has won a major statewide election in georgia since 2000. despite that, abrams believes the math works. i m going to talk to the millions of democratic leaning voters and those disaffected republicans who want to see something else and those independent thinkers who haven t