US: Abrams the first black female nominee for governor
WASHINGTON: Democrat Stacey Abrams made history on Tuesday by becoming the first African American woman ever nominated for state governor by a major party in the US.
Abrams beat Stacey Evans, a white woman, to win the Democratic party nomination for the governorship of Georgia, a Republican-leaning state. She is the first black nominee for governor in the state. The state is slated to go to polls in November.
She is also first woman nominated by either party for the post of governor in Georgia.
A Yale law school graduate, Abrams, 44, rose in politics from the municipal to state level and is currently the leader of opposition in the Georgia state legislature.
“(This win belongs to) everyone who believed that a little black girl who sometimes had to go without lights or running water – who grew up to become the first woman to lead in the Georgia General Assembly – could become the first woman gubernatorial nominee from either party in Georgia’s history,” Abrams wrote in a Facebook post after her victory.
The US census bureau states that African Americans form 13.3% of the population, but the country has elected only two black governors until now.
Abrams’s victory on Tuesday was reason enough for celebration in the community. “I am so excited that my friend Stacey Abrams won Georgia’s Democratic primary to become the nominee for governor - The 1st Black Woman to achieve a major party nomination for governor in history,” tweeted Cory Booker, one of the two African Americans in US senate, who had endorsed Abrams. Other senators with presidential ambitions, such as Kamala Harris — who has African American and Indian heritage — also endorsed Abrams.