Stacey Abrams facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stacey Abrams
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Abrams in 2021
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| Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives | |
| In office January 10, 2011 – July 1, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | DuBose Porter |
| Succeeded by | Bob Trammell |
| Member of the Georgia House of Representatives | |
| In office January 8, 2007 – August 25, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | JoAnn McClinton |
| Succeeded by | Bee Nguyen |
| Constituency | 84th district (2007–2013) 89th district (2013–2017) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Stacey Yvonne Abrams
December 9, 1973 Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Relatives | Leslie Abrams Gardner (sister) |
| Education |
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Stacey Yvonne Abrams (born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, author, and activist for voting rights. She was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. From 2011 to 2017, she was the minority leader, which means she led the members of her political party.
As a member of the Democratic Party, Abrams started an organization called Fair Fight Action in 2018. This group works to make sure voting is fair for everyone. Many people believe her work helped more people in Georgia to vote. This was seen in the 2020 presidential election and the 2020–21 U.S. Senate elections.
In 2018, Abrams was the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. This made her the first African-American woman to be nominated for governor by a major party in the U.S. She ran against Republican Brian Kemp and lost by a small number of votes. In 2022, she ran for governor again but lost to Kemp by a larger margin.
Besides politics, Abrams is also a successful author. She has written both fiction and non-fiction books. Two of her non-fiction books, Our Time Is Now and Lead from the Outside, were New York Times best sellers. She also writes novels and a children's book called Stacey's Extraordinary Words.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
Stacey Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi. She is the second of six children. Her parents, Robert and Carolyn Abrams, later became Methodist ministers.
When she was a teenager, her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. She was the valedictorian (the student with the highest grades) of her high school class. At 17, she was hired as a typist for a political campaign. She was so good at improving speeches that she was quickly promoted to a speechwriter.
Abrams went to Spelman College in Atlanta. In 1995, she graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, which included political science, economics, and sociology. She later earned a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a law degree from Yale Law School.
While in college, Abrams participated in a protest at the Georgia Capitol. The protest was about the design of the Georgia state flag at the time, which included the Confederate battle flag. This event helped shape her understanding of politics.
Career in Law and Business
After finishing law school, Abrams worked as a tax attorney in Atlanta. She focused on non-profit organizations and health care.
In 2010, while serving in the Georgia government, she co-founded a financial services company called NOW Corp. She also started a legal consulting firm named Sage Works.
In 2023, Abrams joined Rewiring America, a non-profit group that encourages communities to use electric power. She works there as a senior counsel.
Political Career
Georgia General Assembly
In 2006, at age 29, Abrams was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. She represented parts of Atlanta and DeKalb County. In 2010, her fellow Democrats elected her as their leader in the House, known as the minority leader.
As minority leader, she worked with Republican Governor Nathan Deal on important issues. They reformed the HOPE Scholarship program to help it continue providing money for students. She also helped pass laws to reform the criminal justice system, which aimed to lower prison costs without increasing crime.
One of her major achievements was stopping a tax bill in 2011. Abrams analyzed the bill and showed that it would actually raise taxes for most Georgians. She shared her findings with every lawmaker, and the bill did not pass.
Abrams resigned from the General Assembly in August 2017 to run for governor.
2018 Campaign for Governor
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In 2018, Abrams ran for governor of Georgia. She won the Democratic primary, becoming the first Black woman in the U.S. to be a major party's nominee for governor. She received support from many famous Democrats, including former president Barack Obama.
Her opponent was Republican Brian Kemp, who was Georgia's secretary of state at the time. As secretary of state, Kemp was in charge of the state's elections. Some people criticized him, saying he made it harder for certain groups of people to vote. For example, his office canceled over a million voter registrations in the years leading up to the election. His office also put over 53,000 voter applications on hold, most of which belonged to minorities.
The election was very close. Abrams lost by about 55,000 votes. After the election, she did not officially "concede," which means she did not agree that the election was conducted fairly. She said, "concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper." Instead, she started a group called Fair Fight Action to challenge voting laws and fight for voting rights.
2022 Campaign for Governor
Abrams announced she would run for governor again in December 2021. She faced Governor Brian Kemp in a rematch.
During the campaign, Abrams focused on issues like expanding access to health care, supporting public education, and her ideas for the economy. She and Kemp had two debates where they discussed their different views.
On November 8, 2022, Abrams lost the election to Kemp. She conceded the race that night, wishing him the best.
Work in National Politics
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In 2019, Abrams was chosen to give the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union address. She was the first African-American woman to do so.
She also started Fair Fight 2020, an organization to help build voter protection teams in 20 states. This group raised millions of dollars to support its work.
During the 2020 presidential election, Abrams's work was credited with helping to register an estimated 800,000 new voters in Georgia. This increase in voters played a big role in Joe Biden winning the state.
Political Views
Abrams supports a woman's right to choose and wants more laws for gun safety. She believes that voter ID laws can make it harder for some people, like minorities and the poor, to vote. However, she is not against the idea of voter ID laws in general.
- Criminal Justice: Abrams supports changes to the justice system. She wants to end the use of cash bail for poor defendants and supports community policing to build trust between police and residents.
- Education: She wants to spend more money on public schools. She supports smaller class sizes, better pay for teachers, and more programs for young children.
- Health Care: Expanding Medicaid to provide health care to more low-income people was a top priority in her campaigns. She also had a plan to address Georgia's high rate of maternal mortality (mothers dying during or after childbirth).
Writing Career
Besides her political work, Abrams is a successful author. For many years, she wrote romance novels under the name Selena Montgomery, selling over 100,000 copies.
In 2021, she published a legal thriller called While Justice Sleeps under her real name. It became a bestseller and is being developed into a television series.
She has also written two popular non-fiction books:
- Lead from the Outside: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change
- Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
Her work has inspired other authors. An event called Romancing the Runoff, created by romance authors, raised money for her voting rights organizations in Georgia.
Personal Life
Abrams is one of six children. Her sister, Leslie Abrams Gardner, is a U.S. district judge.
In 2018, Abrams shared that she had debt from student loans and taxes. She explained that she had deferred paying her taxes to help with her family's medical bills. She created a payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and finished paying off her back taxes and other debts in 2019.
Images for kids
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Abrams in 2018
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Abrams with Terri Sewell and Doug Jones at the 55th Anniversary Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Alabama in 2020
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See also
In Spanish: Stacey Abrams para niños
