Stacey Abrams is the focus of renewed national attention thanks to her very public campaigning for the same V.P. slot that she declined last year. But a lot – namely everything – has changed in the last year.
As the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and serious gubernatorial candidate in the last election cycle, she navigates opportunities where she is usually the only black woman. “I understand a few things,” she is famously quoted for saying. Those things include the importance of speaking up and asking for what you want.
“I have been brought into this national conversation since last year,” she said. “And, at each phase of the conversation, I always answer directly, because I know that people of color, that young girl, are watching me and how I respond. My obligation is to be who I am, and to not allow traditions to continue and perpetuate the consequences.”
In Abrams’ home state of Georgia and across the country, we are only beginning to see the social consequences of COVID-19—and political implications generally lag behind social ones. “The pandemic will pass. We don’t know when, and we don’t know what will replace it, but the most important message I want to deliver is that leadership matters,” Abrams told me. “Leadership that tells the truth, leadership that has competence, and the skills and the proven deliverables.”