Stacey Abrams is a Democratic politician, author, and CEO. Abrams attended Spelman College and several different graduate schools, one of them being Yale Law School. She first became involved in politics when she was hired as a typist for a congressional campaign in high school and then was promoted to a speechwriter. Abrams is passionate about gun control, expanding Medicaid, abolishing the death penalty, and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. Most of her work has been to end voter suppression in Georgia and across the nation as a whole. Abrams served in the Georgia General Assembly for 10 years and then was nominated to run for Georgia governor.
Abrams made history by running for Governor in 2018 against the Secretary of State at the time, Brian Kemp. Because Kemp was Secretary of State, he had enormous power in his own election and was able to nullify over 300,000 votes cast, most of them being people of color who would typically vote blue. Although Abrams lost, she won more votes than any other Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia’s history. After Abrams’ first-hand witness of voter suppression, she launched Fair Fight, which ensures fair and equal voting across America.
In 2013, the Supreme Court scrapped the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act aimed to protect African American voters, who are largely targeted by voter suppression. Because it was scrapped, Georgia closed around 10% of polling stations. Black voters are more likely to vote in person, so the closings prevented many marginalized communities from voting. Like many other Democratic politicians, Abrams aimed to stop this.
In the two years leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election, Fair Fight was able to register around 800,000 voters (most of them being young people of color). In the 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump beat Hilary Clinton by around 5%, but in 2020, Joe Biden was able to beat Donald Trump by around .3%. Joe Biden’s win in Georgia in 2020 is largely due to Fair Fight and their work.
Abrams has been working hard to strengthen the Democratic party in Georgia because in most previous elections Georgia has voted Republican. She recognized how the population demographics in the state were shifting, with the suburbs of Georgia becoming more racially diverse. She knew that she could take advantage of that and help democratic candidates reach out to those new voters.
There is still much work to be done to help Georgia fully turn blue. The runoff elections for the Senate are extremely important this year, and the Democratic nominees, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are working hard to defeat the Republican incumbents. Fair Fight has raised over $6 million to boost these two Democratic candidates.
Abrams deserves to be recognized for her work in strengthening the Democratic Party in Georgia and registering marginalized voters. She drew nationwide attention to Georgia and its importance in the 2020 Presidential Election, and she will continue to fight for equal voting rights. Her fight is not over and there is still much to be done, as Abrams tweeted, “Georgia, let’s shout out those who’ve been in the trenches and deserve that plaudits for change”.