A local Democratic strategist summed up the state of things this way: “The Democratic Party …” He took a long pause before letting out a dispirited sigh. “If you ask people what the Democratic Party stands for, they can’t tell you,” he said. “As soon as you get beyond anti-Trump, nobody seems to know.” The choice in Georgia is between two different playbooks: an ambitious-but-risky plan of action, versus a careful, more traditional one. More broadly, the Georgia race illustrates the challenges facing the Democrats not just in November, but also in 2020. This primary could help define the party and give it an identity it desperately needs.

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Georgia hasn’t had a Democratic governor since 2003, and it’s never had a female or African American one. In the 2016 election, Trump won the Peach State by five points, a smaller margin than Mitt Romney’s in 2012, but still a relatively comfortable one. It’ll be difficult for a Democrat to win here, but in the age of Trump, when the left is more motivated than ever before—and neighboring Alabama has a Democratic senator for the first time in a quarter century—the party thinks it has a real shot at replacing retiring Republican Governor Nathan Deal with one of their own. But which candidate, Abrams or Evans, is best positioned to beat one of the five white, male Republican candidates in a statewide race?

Abrams (who also moonlights as a romance novelist) currently has a significant lead in the polls, although roughly one-third of voters are still undecided. “Our goal,” a spokesperson for the campaign told me, “is to reach out to a multiracial, multiethnic coalition of urban, suburban and rural voters.” It’s similar to the coalition of voters former President Obama used to win in 2008—but not quite. “It’s people of color with enough whites to be able to win, but it’s decidedly more progressive than what Obama put together,” said Andra Gillespie, an associate politics professor at Emory University. “[Obama] tried to de-emphasize race. Abrams isn’t trying to deemphasize race or her gender at all.” In fact, she’s stressing it. “People of color will be the center of [this] coalition because they are the majority of the Democratic party,” Abrams told MSNBC’s Joy Reid after launching her campaign in 2017.

But most people say Evans, although less likely to win the primary, is more likely to win a general election. The lesser-known state legislator has spent the past year introducing herself to voters. Georgians have learned from her campaign ads that she grew up in Ringgold—a small town in northern Georgia with a poverty rate slightly higher than the state’s overall—where she moved from mobile home to mobile home. Her mother was in an abusive relationship, and her brother suffered from a debilitating opioid addiction. On the issues, Evans has focused almost entirely on enhancing the HOPE scholarship, a popular 25-year-old program funded through the state lottery that offers students financial assistance for attending Georgia universities and technical schools. Evans herself went to school on the scholarship. “I lived your hardships,” her campaign message seems to be. “I get it.”