The Hill reports:

Former Democratic state legislative leader Stacey Abrams will not challenge Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) next year, a blow to Democrats who hoped to make inroads in a state Republicans have controlled for nearly two decades.

In a video posted to Twitter, Abrams said she didn't believe serving in the Senate would be the best use of her desire to serve the public.

In case you are wondering how she plans to "serve the public," she means to make herself available as the running mate for any Democrat nominee of insufficient diversity, including white males, white females, or even black males.

With Abrams running for Senate, Georgia would have been a 50-50 contest, and a good chance for a Democratic pickup.  

Democrats may now turn to Jon Ossoff, a candidate who raised more than $30 million during a narrow loss in a special election contest in the Atlanta suburbs in 2017.  Ossoff has been stumping around the state in informal town hall meetings since last year, raising Democratic hopes that he would mount a bid if Abrams said no.

Jon Ossoff would be a much weaker candidate for the Democrats.

At the presidential level, Georgia will be a battleground state in 2020, after Trump's 5-point win in 2016 and less than a 2-point win for Republican Brian Kemp in the governor's race in 2018.

Another GOP state that will be hard fought is Arizona, where Trump won by 3% in 2016 and Dems won an open Senate seat by 2% in 2018.  Dems have a strong candidate for the Senate: former astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Gabby Giffords, set to challenge Martha McSally, a 50-50 proposition for the GOP at best.

Arizona and Colorado (Corey Gardner) are the two most vulnerable GOP-held Senate seats up in 2020.  Susan Collins is probably OK in Maine.  Her first challenger is a queer mermaid.

The GOP now has 53 Senate seats, and one pickup looks very likely — taking down Doug Jones, Alabama's accidental senator, elected only because his opponent Roy Moore was so unpalatable in the special election, even in Alabama.  With that seat, the GOP would have 54 and could lose 3 others and still hold the majority if Democrats win the White House.  If Trump wins re-election, Dems will need to win five GOP-held seats if Jones loses to get to 51, since Vice President Pence could break a 50-50 tie.

Image credit: YouTube screen grab.