If you’re like most of us, maybe you don’t lose sleep over it, but you may chew your nails worrying about when and if Stacey Abrams will run for governor in 2022.

Abrams has been furtive about announcing her potential run; she’s said to be a shrewd chess player. But without her, Democratic Party insiders worry they may be left in the dust without time to introduce a new candidate. 

“I think she still has a little bit of time,” a Democratic strategist told The Hill. “The minute she announces, she is automatically the candidate to beat. The problem is, I think that keeps everything in kind of a holding pattern when we really need to be aggressive and proactive in Georgia.”

If you’re not familiar with Abrams, she’s a voting rights activist, a New York Times bestselling author, a lawyer, and has served in the Georgia statehouse for 11 years.

After her bitter and contested run in 2018, the top-ranking Georgia Democrat famously turned her focus to voting rights to ensure all Americans were able to cast a ballot via programs such as Fair Fight 2020, where she raised millions for then-Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and registered a staggering 800,000 voters. She also funded and trained voter protection teams in 20 battleground states.

While she was born in Madison, Wisconsin, Abrams grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi. She and her five siblings then attended high school in Atlanta, Georgia. 

“My selections when I go into the voting booth may be partisan, but the process that gets me there should not be,” she told a crowd of hundreds at the echoing Chevalier Theater in Medford, Connecticut, in late October.

“I’m doing what I am doing so that the people who never want me to hold public office again have the same access to voting. The people who decry those who share my complexion or my ideology, or any of the inconvenient truths that I hold in their estimation, should have not been denied their access by virtue of their belief.”

Wendy Davis, a member of the executive committee of the Georgia Democratic Party, told The Daily Beast in November 2020: “Stacey Abrams intends to run for governor again.” She added: “I think that is a secret to no one.”

But Abrams has yet to announce despite the fact that she maintains her status as the endorser to pursue for Democratic candidates, even stumping for Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia gubernatorial candidate. She has also not stopped blocking GOP efforts to enact more and more controversial, restrictive voting laws across the country. 

“I think she’s continuing to build the needed and necessary infrastructure for a campaign, even if she’s not saying it outright,” one Abrams ally told The Hill. “Not to mention she’s added a number of allies and partners through her work, and I think that only enhances her ability to get across the finish line first this time.”

The reality is Abrams doesn’t have to announce as early as a lesser-known candidate would. She has a behemoth of support behind her, and no one else is bold enough to announce a run until she does.

“I do think her making the decision sooner rather than later will bring much more clarity,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist. “If for whatever reason she decides not to run, someone else is going to have to step in and put together the infrastructure she needs to be competitive.”

Meanwhile, twice-impeached one-term president Donald Trump is on a mission to torpedo Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after the governor’s response to Trump’s loss in 2020—meaning Kemp acknowledged the reality of the loss and has not pretended otherwise. 

During a Georgia rally in September, Trump announced he’d prefer Abrams to Kemp for governor. To date, no one in the Georgia GOP has come to Kemp’s defense or countered Trump. 

According to CNN, Georgia Republicans expect former Sen. David Perdue to run against Kemp in 2022—a move that could split the party and cause chaos, leaving Kemp largely without Trump’s endorsement or his vast supporters. 

“David Perdue with Donald Trump’s backing is dangerous,” a GOP operative told CNN. 

An Abrams adviser who asked not to be identified told Newsweek, “Stacey has a plan, and it’s only a surprise to people who haven’t paid attention.” They added: