DALTON, Ga. – Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams is between a rock and a hard place in her quest to become the first black female governor in America.

The rock is the giant granite Confederate monument on the face of Georgia’s Stone Mountain; the hard place is overcoming Republican dominance in the state’s small cities and towns and rural areas.

Wednesday Abrams took her campaign to the hard place — ruby red northern Georgia where Donald Trump won 80 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election — holding a town hall session in the city of Dalton to promote her agenda and field inquiries from voters.

A woman in the audience raised the rock question: If elected, what will become of the “beautiful carving” of General Robert E. Lee, General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis on state-owned Stone Mountain?

One year ago — in the wake of the violent white nationalist rally protesting the removal of General Lee’s statue in Charlottesville, Virginia — Abrams described Stone Mountain’s monument as “celebrating those who defended slavery… a blight on our state that should be removed.”

The remark caught Georgians flat-footed. Despite arguments raging across the country for removing monuments to the Confederacy, few expected Stone Mountain’s sculpture to be blasted to dust given its popularity with tourists.

Abrams didn’t flinch at the question, answering to the packed and diverse crowd assembled at the Dalton Convention Center:  “I will never pretend not to believe something I believe.”

Abrams drew a distinction between Civil War markers commemorating an historical event that occurred in Georgia and monuments glorifying the war that were erected in the decades that followed, particularly during the Jim Crow era. The Stone Mountain monument was dedicated in 1972 after years of delay due to lack of funding.

“I never once said sandblast (the monument),” she said. “But I did say that we should do something about the fact we have this massive monument to domestic terrorism without context and without information, and I believe absolutely the state should not be paying for a monument to domestic terrorism.” 

Abrams said the fate of the Stone Mountain 42-foot deep carving does not top her list of priorities. She touts her plan to create jobs through investments in infrastructure and small business development, as well as Medicaid expansion. 

“But will I ever say that Stone Mountain is a good thing, that celebrating the terrorism that was visited upon not only African-Americans but Jews in the state of Georgia is a good thing? Absolutely not. And if I was willing to say that, then you should not want me to be the next governor of Georgia,” Abrams said, prompting a standing ovation. 

Abrams faces Republican Brian Kemp in November’s gubernatorial election. It is one of the most closely watched races in the country, a test of President Donald Trump’s popularity in a state he won, sans urban support, a slim victory over Hillary Clinton.

Kemp, 54, is the Georgia secretary of state who prefers Trump-style rhetoric, declaring he would “round up criminal illegals” and haul them back to the Mexican border in his pickup truck. He has been warmly embraced by the president.

Abrams, 44, is a former Democratic leader in the Georgia Legislature and a political opposite in style and tone. She has been endorsed by former President Barack Obama.

CNHI Georgia state reporter Jill Nolin contributed to this report.