Stacey Abrams: Don’t Get Mad, Get Even

Stacey Abrams didn’t just arrive on the scene in 2018 when she challenged Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp for Governor. Stacey earned 1.9 million votes, more than any other Democrat in Georgia history, but Kemp had 55,000 more votes and became Georgia’s Governor.

Kemp hardly won fair and square. As Secretary of State, an office he continued to hold during the election, he interpreted the rules. He made sure he had every advantage in the race, particularly suppressing minority votes, long a Georgia tradition. Between 2012 and 2016, Kemp removed 1.5 million people from the voter rolls in Georgia for issues like not voting in the previous election or failing an “exact match” on their signatures or issues with punctuation. These policies affected minorities in highly disproportionate numbers. Any challenge to the policies promoted by Kemp was decided by . . . Kemp.

Stacey Abrams started her career in the Georgia House of Representatives, where she became the Democratic Leader and was also an activist who registered voters, particularly minority voters. The resistance she initially received was from the potential voters themselves. They knew well Georgia’s history of voter suppression since Black people got the right to vote with the Fifteenth Amendment. Stacey focused on healthcare, an issue that mattered greatly to her audience. She explained that the reason Medicare hadn’t been expanded in Georgia was that the Governor refused to expand it. If they wanted better healthcare, they needed a new Governor.

During the race, Stacey proved to be an outstanding candidate, well versed in the issues and constantly exposing Kemp’s conflict of interest and continued suppression of votes. She almost pulled off, but in the end, the hundreds of thousands of voters at a minimum that Kemp kept from voting was enough to give him the statistical victory. Abrams never conceded; she acknowledged only that she had no viable path to victory.

“To watch an elected official — who claims to represent the people of this state — baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling. So, to be clear, this is not a speech of concession. Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede. But I assess that the law currently allows no further viable remedy.”

Perhaps Stacey Abrams was expected to slink away after the election while Georgia continued to do what Georgia has always done. Instead, Stacey didn’t just get mad; she got even. Georgia continued implementing new policies to suppress votes even after Kemp won, but Stacey kept registering voters, getting ready for the next election.

Her role in the limelight gave her high visibility in the Democratic Party. Stacey was considered as a possible candidate for President and later as the nominee for Vice-President. She ultimately declined to run for the former and wasn’t selected for the latter. She’s keeping her cards close to her vest but kept working to enroll more Georgia voters through her Fair Fight, the organization where she serves as CEO, striving to enroll 800,000 new voters before the 2020 Election.

Through new statewide policies like the automatic offer of voter registration at driver’s license renewals, which Abrams supported and her continued push to register voters, Her 800,000 target was met. To the Republicans and Democrats’ disbelief alike, Joe Biden is leading in the Georgia race for President. However, the new Secretary of State that replaced Kemp is already saying there’ll be a runoff. It could be that Stacey helped elect the next President of the United States and set the stage for Georgians to flip two Senate seats to the Democratic Party. Stacey herself is already being talked about for Cabinet positions or as a candidate for Governor in 2022. At this point, she can do pretty much whatever she wants. Keep watching!

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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