On November 16, the hopes of Democrats in Georgia (and around the country) were dashed when Stacey Abrams ended her bid for governor—announcing in a speech that, while she wasn’t conceding the race, she acknowledged that Republican Brian Kemp would ultimately be certified as the winner. This news was met with disappointment, but came as no surprise. Though Abrams ran an incredible race and made history multiple times over, her campaign strategy was no match for the near decade of voter suppression that Kemp put in place in order to steal this election and ensure Republican wins statewide.
But Abrams isn’t going away. She recently announced that she is considering running for Senate in 2020 or for governor again in 2022. She has even not ruled out the possibility of running for president. She’s also putting in work to combat voter suppression as the founder of Fair Fight Georgia, an organization dedicated to election reform and securing the voting rights of Georgians. Though her run for governor in 2018 is over, she’s just getting started.
Let’s be clear—though she is not Georgia’s next governor-elect, Abrams’s campaign was not a failure. She became the first black woman in American history to be nominated for governor by a major party. She also received more votes than any other Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia’s history. Instead of running as middle-of-the road Democrat, Abrams ran as a progressive and insisted from the very beginning that she didn’t need to change her skin color, hair, weight or anything else about her in order to be elected. She also spent years building a base of Democratic voters through the New Georgia Project and successfully convened and inspired a coalition of young people, single women, and black and brown voters. There is much we can learn from this campaign about organizing, talking to voters who comprise the base of the party about issues they care about, and turning them out. More importantly, we can also imagine endless possibilities when we motivate voters from a sense of hope and inspiration instead of fear and outrage.
On Thursday, December 6, Daily Kos staff members Irna Landrum and Kelly Macías will be at the People’s Movement Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 7-9 PM hosting a talk called “Learning from Stacey Abrams: #BlackGirlMagic & Winning Elections.” We will discuss lessons learned from the Abrams campaign and from our time on the ground in Georgia covering the gubernatorial election. We'll be joined by Angela Conley—who made history in November after being elected Hennepin County's first black commissioner—in a talk moderated by Minnesota Democratic Farm Labor Party’s Stonewall Caucus chair and former Minnesota City Council candidate Erica Mauter. The purpose of this talk is not to wallow in defeat. It is instead to celebrate the joy, excitement, and transformation we saw in this election cycle and to think about how this can be harnessed for 2020 and beyond.
If you are local and would like to join us, please RSVP on Facebook by clicking here. And stay tuned for updates as we report back and continue the conversation with our networks and the Daily Kos community.