COVINGTON, Ga. – With the 2018 election looming, both major party gubernatorial candidates made stops in Covington in recent days.

Democrat Stacey Abrams brought her campaign for governor to Covington’s Legion Field Friday evening. Abrams was joined by several local and statewide candidates including Sarah Riggs Amico who’s running for lieutenant governor and Charlie Bailey, running for state attorney general. Delaware’s U.S. Senator Chris Coons was also there. 

The former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives told the standing room crowd packed into the Fair Building that she has a plan to create apprenticeships for high school graduates. 

“Georgia’s done a good job this year. We have an 80 percent graduation rate,” she said. “But I’m worried about the 20 percent that will still be left behind. But I also want to make sure that when people cross that stage, they cross into possibilities.

“That’s why I’m the only candidate with a plan to create 22,000 apprenticeships by 2022. Those are good paying jobs across the State of Georgia. And not just in the place that the governor likes. It’s going to be in places the governor serves, and that means all 159 counties.”

Abrams told The Covington News that her top priority if elected is expanding Medicaid in Georgia. She said she can get it done.

“There are enough Republicans who understand that it’s crippling rural communities, that we can’t bring jobs to those communities without it,” she said, “They know that it will help their communities get access to healthcare. And this isn’t partisan- more Republican governors preside over Medicaid expansion states than Democrats do.

“So this is not about partisanship it’s about peopleship. It’s about the moral choice we have to make and we’re going to expand Medicaid.  We do that, it helps us with education, it helps us with job creation and it helps us move the state forward.”

Early voting continues through Friday, Nov. 2. Election Day is Nov. 6.