Stacey Abrams, US politician extraordinaire
Stacey Abrams is known for getting things done – it may be thanks to her that Joe Biden is president
SHE was only 18 and it felt as if her world had been kicked out from under her. Stacey Abrams was getting her first taste of heartache: her boyfriend, Chad, told her he no longer wanted to go out with her.
But rather than wallowing in a pity fest, Stacey did something that helped put the break-up into perspective. She headed over to her college computer lab and spent the evening painstakingly mapping out the next 40 years of her life.
She put it all on a spreadsheet, all the things she planned to achieve without him – from studying law to making her mark in the world of politics and writing bestselling novels. Looking back now, getting her heart broken might have been the best thing that ever happened to Stacey (47). She’s the first to admit if it hadn’t been for heartless Chad, she might not be where she is today.
According to Forbes magazine, she’s one of the most powerful women in the world and she’s been hailed as America’s most influential black voice. Queen of Talk Oprah Winfrey, musician John Legend and former president Barack Obama are among her most ardent fans, while the current incumbent of the White House, Joe Biden, makes no secret of the fact that, if it weren’t for her monumental efforts, he might not have beaten Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election.
It’s hard to overstate the role she played in helping the Democrats win. While Trump played the victim, claiming the election was “stolen”, Stacey has genuinely experienced how it feels to be cheated of victory – there’s evidence to suggest she may have lost out on the chance to be governor of Georgia back in 2018 because of dubious tactics employed by her opponent.
And she was determined she wasn’t going to stand by and let it happen again. On top of working tirelessly to ensure hundreds of thousands of black voters who’d been stripped of their right to vote were reregistered, she used her considerable clout to ensure that when they went to the polls, they voted for Biden.
Political analysts say it’s largely thanks to her that the key state of Georgia swung back to the Democrats for the first time since 1992. She also helped ensure the Democrats were successful in runoff elections in the state, which means Biden’s party now holds a majority in the senate and can actually get things done.
Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. The political powerhouse was recently named one of the nominees for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside other big names such as Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and the Black Lives Matter movement.
If she wins the prestigious award in recognition of her work to promote non
violent change via the ballot box, she’ll join the ranks of Obama, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jnr and Mother Teresa – now there’s an achievement that probably isn’t on her spreadsheet.
WHILE recognition is nice, the real satisfaction comes from knowing she’s done something to make a difference. Colleagues say that in Georgia, Stacey’s name is often invoked as a verb to mean “get things done”.
But Stacey insists she’s only doing what she was brought up to do. On her website she explains that growing up in Mississippi, she and her five siblings were raised by their parents, Robert, a shipyard worker, and Carolyn, a librarian, to respect three key principles: go to school, go to church, and take care of one another.
She says although money was tight, they knew they were fortunate to have two parents who loved them. “And that privilege meant we had an obligation to serve,” she says. “They made sure we volunteered to help others.”
Later when the family moved to Atlanta, her parents studied divinity at Emory University and eventually became United Methodist ministers.
After finishing high school, Stacey went on to complete a master’s in public affairs at the University of Texas in 1998, followed by a law degree at Yale.
Working as a tax attorney in Atlanta focusing on healthcare and public finance, she made such an impression that she was appointed as deputy city attorney in 2002 at the age of just 29.
But she was itching to do more and four years later she became a member of Georgia’s House of Representatives.
In 2010 she made history by becoming the first black person to be elected to lead the House and is credited as having single-handedly stopped the largest tax increase in Georgia’s history.
Seven years later she became a household name in America when she sought to become the country’s first black female state governor.
Although she came close, garnering about 49% of the vote, it wasn’t enough and her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, was declared the winner.
But his victory was clouded by the fact that in his previous capacity as Georgia’s secretary of state, Kemp had cancelled the voter registrations of more than a million Georgia residents. His office claimed this was simply a case of maintaining voter records by removing “inactive” residents.
It turned out many of these cancelled registrations belonged to black and minority voters who were still very much alive and living in Georgia, prompting election-law experts to warn that Kemp’s actions “may represent the largest mass disenfranchisement in US history”.
In the recent commencement speech she made at Columbia University, Stacey admitted the loss was a bitter blow.
“In the aftermath, I allowed myself to acknowledge my anger and sadness, but I knew that I could not stay in that place,” she said.
So she got out her spreadsheet and made a few adjustments and then launched a new operation aimed at countering the voter purges that might have cost her the election.
Within two years, by working with a network of organisations, she’d registered more than 800 000 voters in Georgia alone. And when Biden notched up his victory in the state, she couldn’t hide her delight.
“My heart is full,” she tweeted.
MANY are now wondering what the next goal is on that spreadsheet. Stacey’s not saying. But amid all her other achievements, she also long ago managed to tick off her dream of becoming an author by penning eight romantic thrillers under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery. She has another book due out later this year which will be published using her real name.
Although she’s never married and real love has eluded her, she remains a steadfast romantic. She’s also revealed that writing one of her books, Rules of Engagement, helped her to get over a guy who’d disappointed her – though she didn’t say if his name was Chad.
“I wrote my ex-boyfriend in as a character and put him in prison, where he languishes to this day,” she says.
But while she enjoys writing, politics is her passion and there’s even talk of a possible presidential run in 2024.
Biden has full faith that if she sets her mind to doing it, she will win.
“Stacey Abrams can be anything she wants to be, from whatever she chooses to president,” he says.
‘I ALLOWED MYSELF TO ACKNOWLEDGE MY ANGER BUT I COULDN’T STAY IN THAT PLACE’