a view of democrats is keeping the race razor close with 55% of georgia voters having a negative view of the party. nbc news correspondent blayne alexander spoke with abrams and joins us now. good morning. reporter: willie, good morning. you re right. there would be a time we wouldn t even be talking about georgia, when it would be so clear it was going to go red that it wouldn t be something that would be watched closely, not nationally. but 2020 changed all of that. when spoik with stacey abrams, i started off by asking her about the importance of georgia beyond the governor s race, but what it means when we look at political trends around the country, voting patterns. here s what she had to say. how important is the state of georgia? georgia is essential. we know that raphael warnock is
have blamed the on his predecessor, he didn t. i think he was surprised when he admitted it was on him, it went up and his father said this more often. i kid to make the points that sometimes we are guarded and unwilling. yeah, it certainly can be a problem. we know blaming happens because people get defensive, at least at an individual level. people get defensive. neil: what do you mean by that? met they feel guilty, they want to maintain an identity of perfection and when you are victim, you are powerless to make that change but what is interesting is when you look at blaming politically, it s slightly different because political blaming can work. it s scapegoating whoever you are pointing your finger toward, it can be voting patterns, it
know, shelby county versus holder case. uh-huh. as soon as that the the protections around voting rights were lifted by the supreme court. states throughout the country began to pass more restrictive laws. and change the the voting patterns of many people. and i think this is what is going to happen in in the case of the dobbs decision. that the dobbs decision impact is going to be harsh and it s going to be sustained if, in some in some way, we don t respond to, um, impact at the state level beginning. and then, perhaps, um, be able to pass legislation at the federal level to protect reproductive freedoms and
and on the ground they will organize in battleground states such as georgia, arizona, pennsylvania. the groups are worried that a lack of action so far on climate policies could be a drag on democratic voter turnout, especially among one people. the more immediate issue for democrats in the midterms, bread and butter issues, particularly sky high gas prices. aaa says the national average is $4.87 a gallon, up 60 cents in the last month, almost $20 in the last year for pandemic lows. cnn s data reporter hair kree enten joins us with analysis. i wonder have we in the past seen that gas prices have driven voting patterns? to some degree it s not a perfect connection. we can take a look at the yearly growth in gas prices compared to past midterms at this point in the cycle. with he see that this year is off the charts, right? it s ridiculously high, the growth rate right now, i ve done this a few times on air and each