The St. James Baptist Church in Monroe County, Georgia is just a little over an hour south of Atlanta.

The vibe in the chapel today is just electric.

It's got a very Obama 2008 feel.

A room full of black folks young and old gathered on the first day of early voting,

waiting for Stacey Abrams to send them off to the polls.

Thank you so much, Councilman Howard.

Thank you, Reverend Proctor.

Thank you, Mayor, for having me here in your town.

Again, that's one of the other...

Abrams is running for governor, quite famously at this point.

You may have noticed I'm a little different than the other candidates who come before you.

If she wins, she'll be the first black woman to serve as governor of any state in all of US history.

And yet, this may not even be the most radical difference between Abrams and previous Democrats.

She represents a hard break from Democratic Party Convention not only because of who she is,

but also because of how she's running.

Abrams has pushed Georgia Democrats into a totally new kind of campaign,

and if her strategy works, it could realign politics all over the South.

I'm Kywright, this is the United States of Anxiety, Gender, Power, and the midterm elections.

And in this episode, we dig into two races that have drawn a lot of headlines.

One here in Georgia.

The other, up north in New Jersey.

In each place, a Democratic woman has made her party a real contender in previously unimaginable territory by doing and being something totally new. What do we live? We're here. We can! St. We can!

...