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Stacey Abrams’ Bold Ambition Proves There’s Hope for Politics
WOC candidates may be seen as unlikable, unviable, and not electable but Abrams’ grit is changing that
In a recent interview, former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams stated that she thinks she’ll be president by the year 2040. There is no reason to doubt her prediction.
When rampant voter suppression torpedoed her bid for governor in 2018, she refused to concede. Instead, she launched Fair Fight, a new organization to educate voters about their rights. Her pivot brought national attention to the issue of election security. A few months later, her response to President Trump’s State of the Union address invigorated the Democratic Party. Her poise and tenacity have lifted the spirits of a weary and fatigued resistance movement, and her bold, unapologetic political ambition galvanizes Black, Indigenous, and other women and femmes of color to run for elected office.
It’s no secret that women and femmes, especially BIWOC are judged harshly for expressing their ambition. They are deemed entitled or aggressive, and are overlooked when it comes to positions in leadership. In an interview last year with New York Times Magazine, even Abrams acknowledged this reality. “Communities that are not considered normative are often discouraged from not only having ambition, but they’re also told that there is something inherently arrogant in wanting more and that we should be satisfied with whatever we get.” Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in Congress, and the first Black woman in a major political party to run for President, expressed a similar sentiment in 1968. “I am not white, and because I am not a male… I am not going to get the blessings of the power structure in this country.”
Trump’s 2016 election win mobilized women to run for office. And 2018 was a banner year for Black women. Nearly 500 Black women, a record high, ran for office across the U.S. The highest number of Black women in history won seats in the House at 22. Jahana Hayes was the first Black woman elected to Congress from Connecticut. And an astonishing 19 Black women won judgeships in Harris County, Texas. Indigenous women, too, had a historic year in 2018. A…
