Stacey Abrams: the Woman who Flipped the Vote in Georgia

American politician, lawyer, author, voting rights activist, and Yale graduate Stacey Abrams, 46, can be credited in large part for Democratic voter turnout in the state of Georgia, which is predicted to go blue for the first time during a presidential election in almost 28 years.

Abrams has been a long-time advocate for voting rights, but since her loss against Brian Kemp, which raised suspicions of racially-profiled voter suppression, she has picked up serious momentum and motivation. In 2018 Abrams founded Fair Fight, an organization intended to fight voter suppression. Fair Fight focuses on three aspects of voting rights: litigation, legislation, and advocacy. The success of her organization can be measured in the 800,000 voters that were registered through Abrams’s efforts since 2018.

Abrams has received praise from multitudinous sources. According to Vogue Magazine, Stacey Abrams is “one of the country’s preeminent voting rights activists.” In an NBC interview with Michael Collins, chief of staff for late Rep. John Lewis, she was praised for her wit, skill, intellect, and determination: “Rarely does one person deserve such disproportionate credit for progress and change,” tweets Susan Rice.

Since the presidential election was called on November 5, 2020 for Joe Biden, Abrams has been focusing on the Senate Runoff Elections which are set to be held January 5, 2021. These seats are crucial to the Democrats because they hold the key to controlling the Senate. If Georgian Democrats take both of the seats, the Senate will be 50/50 Democrats to Republicans, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker vote. “We can have access to healthcare, access to justice, and access to jobs,” said Abrams on Hillary Clinton’s podcast, You and Me Both. “These are the two men [Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock] who will get it done if we do our part and we don’t relax, we don’t relent and we do everything we can to push them over the finish line on January 5.”

Regardless of what the results may be, Stacey Abrams will have still played an important role in fighting voter suppression in Georgia and securing constitutional rights for all. Both sides of the aisle can agree that she should be commended for that.