WASHINGTON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Stacey Abrams won the Democratic Party's gubernatorial primary in the southern U.S. state Georgia, making her the country's first African-American woman governor candidate, local media reported Tuesday night.
The 44-year-old former state House minority leader beat former state representative Stacey Evans, said the reports.
"We are writing the next chapter of Georgia's future where no one is unseen, no one is unheard and no one is uninspired," Abrams said at her post-election party. "We are writing a history of a Georgia where we prosper together."
Both the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her major primary rival Bernie Sanders endorsed Abrams in the primary. Clinton recorded a robocall for her the day before the election, said a USA Today report.
She also reportedly raised about two-thirds of her campaign funds from outside the state. National groups chipped in another 2 million dollars worth of ads supporting her.
Georgia has never elected a woman governor. It has elected Republican governors since 2003 and President Donald Trump won the state with just over 50 percent of the vote.
As many as 46 women have filed to run in governors' races this year, breaking the record of 34 candidates in 1994, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Kentucky and Arkansas also held primaries on Tuesday while Texas held a primary runoff election.
