‘We do not succeed alone’
Stacey Abrams rebuts Trump in Dem response
ATLANTA — Stacey Abrams stepped onto the biggest stage of her political career Tuesday and accused President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans of abandoning working Americans and fomenting partisan and cultural discord.
The Georgia Democrat introduced herself to the nation months after narrowly losing her bid to become America’s first black female governor. Instead, she became the first black woman to deliver a State of the Union response.
Speaking from a union hall in Atlanta, Abrams combined her party’s vision of a more unified society with her personal story as a black daughter of the Deep South.
“These were our family values: faith, service, education and responsibility,” she said, arguing for “this uncommon grace of community.
“We do not succeed alone,” she added. “In these United States, when times are tough, we can persevere because our friends and neighbors will come for us.”
Abrams identified Trump as the architect of a 35-day partial government shutdown that ended last month, though a possible reprise looms in the coming weeks. “The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States,” Abrams said, “one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people, but our values.”
Abrams’ selection by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was a nod to her rising political fortunes despite her defeat last year. Encouraged by her ability to push Republicanrun Georgia toward battleground status, Schumer is trying to persuade Abrams to run for a Republicanheld Senate seat in 2020 — two years after she won more votes than any Democrat in Georgia history, including presidential candidates.
It was also a symbolic nod to the power and influence of black women — and all women — in anchoring the Democratic base, a reality also on display as Trump delivered his address. He looked out on the largest contingent of women ever assembled in Congress, many of them clad in white to honor the suffragists of the early 20th century.
Responding to the president’s most high-profile speech is one of the toughest jobs in politics. Abrams appeared to avoid the pitfalls that have left burgeoning young politicians subject to ridicule: Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for repeatedly drinking water, Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy III for his excess ChapStick, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for a sing-song delivery.
Abrams spoke in her hometown of Atlanta, with an audience that included workers, activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs and voters who her aides say had trouble casting their ballots in 2018. Abrams abandoned her governor’s race without a formal concession, asserting that Kemp used his last post as secretary of state to make it harder for people, particularly minorities and the poor, to cast ballots. Kemp defended his job performance, but Abrams has still emerged as a leading voting rights advocate nationally.
“This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country,” Abrams said. “We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is a ‘power grab,’” she added, a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s description of House Democrats’ efforts to overhaul U.S. election law.
Running for governor, Abrams talked often of her parents and the challenges they faced as children of the segregated Jim Crow South. She also spoke unabashedly about her personal debts, which Republicans used as an attack. Abrams often said her student loans and other debts amassed caring for family members left her more empathetic than most politicians to what the majority of U.S. households experience in day-to-day life.
“My family understood firsthand that while success is not guaranteed, we live in a nation where opportunity is possible,” she said.