Stacey Abrams

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Stacey Abrams (2018)

Stacey Yvonne Abrams (born December 9, 1973 in Madison , Wisconsin ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . She was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 and was also chair of the Democratic Group there from 2011. She lost the Georgia gubernatorial election in 2018 as the first African American woman to be elected for the highest office in a state by either of the major political parties .

Career

Born in Wisconsin , Abrams grew up in Mississippi before her family moved to Atlanta , Georgia . After attending high school and college , she later graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in political science . She then graduated from the prestigious Yale University with a law degree in 1998 . Between 1999 and 2006 she worked in various legal areas in the private sector.

Abrams has been interested in politics since she was a teenager and has participated in several local Democratic Party election campaigns . Among other things, she was involved in writing campaign speeches. In 2006, she ran for office and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, to which she was a member from January 2007. After two re-elections, Abrams was elected leader of the Democratic Group in 2011. As a minority leader , she primarily assumed the role of an opposition leader , while the Republicans ruled both the legislature and the executive with the governor . However, she also tried to actively shape the politics of the state in various areas: For example, a non-partisan reform of the school system came about, in the course of which Abrams worked together with the Republican governor Nathan Deal . She was confirmed in office in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Between 2007 and 2013, Abrams represented the 84th constituency and, as a result of a regular adjustment, the 89th district.

In June 2017, Abrams announced her candidacy for the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election . In July 2017, she resigned from the State Legislature so that she could fully devote herself to her election campaign . She won the primary for the party's nomination in May 2018 against Stacey Evers with 76.5% of the vote, making her the first black woman in US history to be nominated for governorship by one of the two major parties. Your pre-election victory received national coverage in the American and international media. The ideologically right-wing Secretary of State Brian Kemp, supported by President Donald Trump , emerged victorious from the Republican primary . The incumbent governor Nathan Deal could not run again after two terms in office.

In her election campaign, Abrams focused primarily on issues such as social justice , investment in education, better health insurance protection and a reform of the criminal law to reduce the high number of prisoners. This should especially help African Americans, who, in the view of many Democrats, are often punished too harshly for minor offenses. Abrams also stands for a liberal social policy that welcomes immigration and gives women the right to abortion ( Pro-Choice ). It is assigned to the progressive wing of the Democrats, left by European standards . In this respect she differs from previous Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidates who have been unsuccessful since 1998. Abrams believes that their strategy of addressing moderate conservatives as a more centrist politician in the state that is structurally inclined towards the Republicans has failed. Instead, it concentrated on mobilizing its own electorate, which should also be achieved by an above-average turnout of blacks. Political observers gave Abrams a chance of winning the election. In particular, the national political climate, the moderate popularity of President Trump and the increasing shift of Georgia from a red state (republican state) to a purple state (purple or contested state) were named in their favor.

In the November 2018 election, Abrams was defeated by Republican Kemp with 48.8 to 50.3 percent of the vote. Previously, as acting Secretary of State, Kemp had made a number of controversial decisions, which critics described as attempts to make it difficult for democratically inclined voters to participate in the vote or to exclude them (voter suppression). Therefore, although their deficit on Kemp seemed impossible to make up shortly after election day, Abrams insisted that all ballot papers be counted and did not give up the election for a long time, as a runoff ballot if Kemp's share of the vote had fallen below 50 percent should have been scheduled. After both sides went to court and some decisions were in favor of others against Abrams, she ended her campaign on November 16, 2018. She had considered taking legal action against the election as a whole because of the exclusion of many voters, but decided against it.

Abrams announced that it would campaign against the exclusion of voters in Georgia in a more general way. She is considered a possible candidate for the Democrats for further political positions. For example, there has been speculation about a 2020 Senate candidacy against David Perdue ; The Washington Post proposed that Abrams be named Speaker of the United States House of Representatives . In January 2019, Abrams met with parliamentary group leader Chuck Schumer and campaign commissioner Catherine Cortez Masto in the US Senate and announced that they would decide on their political plans by March. Abrams spoke about the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union Address on February 5, 2019.

Private

Stacey Abrams is single and has six siblings. Her younger sister, Leslie, is a judge at a Georgia federal district court .

Web links

Commons : Stacey Abrams  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meet Stacey , campaign website (English).
  2. ↑ She is the other America , ZEIT, May 23, 2018 (English).
  3. ↑ After Winning in Georgia, Stacey Abrams Says She's 'Ready to Get to Work' , The New York Times, May 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ Can Stacey Abrams Really Turn Georgia Blue? , FiveThrityEight, May 25, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ Stacey Abrams: 'Democrats can't win by pretending to be Republicans' PBS News Hour (interview), May 23, 2018 (English).
  6. ^ Georgia Governor Election Results. In: The New York Times , November 6, 2018 (updated continuously); Gregory Krieg: Stacey Abrams says 'democracy failed' Georgia as she ends bid for governor. In: CNN.com , November 17, 2018.
  7. ^ Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell: Abrams ends run for governor against Kemp. In: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , November 16, 2018; Christopher Bates: Election Updates: Abrams Concedes, Love Leads, Nelson Bleeds. In: Electoral Vote , November 17, 2018 (sections 1 and 8); Meredith Meisenheimer, Sue Altman: Why Democrats should make Stacey Abrams speaker of the House. In: The Washington Post , November 9, 2018.
  8. ↑ Greg Bluestein: Abrams goes to DC to discuss potential 2020 Senate bid. In: The Atlanta Journal-Counstitution , January 12, 2019.
  9. ^ Marianne Levine: Stacey Abrams to give Democratic response to State of the Union. In: Politico , January 29, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Abrams, Stacey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abrams, Stacey Yvonne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Madison , Wisconsin, United States