Stated Podcast: Stacey Abrams
Season 2, Episode 6 of Stated, a podcast by the DLCC
For the season finale of Stated, Jessica sits down with former Georgia minority leader and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. In 2018, Stacey made history as the first African-American woman nominee for governor. Since delivering the Democratic response to the State of the Union, she has worked to ensure every ballot is counted and every voice heard with her organization Fair Fight Action. Listen to their conversation below:
This interview was first published on June 25, 2019 and as been edited for length and clarity. Subscribe to Stated on your favorite podcast app.
Ensuring voting rights for all eligible voters is paramount in a democracy — which is why Republicans have attempted to undermine it at every turn.
Jessica Post: I know I was so excited when you delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union, in which you said that ensuring voting rights and protections was “the next battle for our democracy.” … What makes voting rights such an important fight for you?
Stacey Abrams: Every right, every privilege, every policy that we want to see made manifest in the U.S. is undergirded by the right to vote. We know that voting is critical because we’ve watched the Republican Party work so assiduously to erode access. But even prior to the last two decades of conservative erosion, we’ve seen when communities finally achieve the right to vote, their needs are met.
When women gain the right to vote; when African Americans truly gain the right to vote; when Native Americans became citizens. When the right to vote is achieved, there’s a transformation in our politics. My mission is to make real the franchise. But we know there are those who don’t want policy to change, and so the effort in contrast is to limit access to the vote and to limit the ability of every citizen to make their voices heard.
They talk about Stacey’s peculiar situation in Georgia, in which the secretary of state administered his own election:
Stacey: I was recently at an event with foreign ministers, basically the secretaries of state for other nations, and when I told my story, the looks of just disbelief and — I can’t quite put the word together, but this combination of “America did that?” and “Really?” And these are some folks who came from some sketchy countries where the right to vote is not always sacrosanct.
But it’s emblematic of the challenge we face in our country that a secretary of state was allowed to oversee his own election — something we chastise other nations for doing. So for me, the urgency of this issue is the existential crisis of our democracy. When we start to say it’s okay to limit access, to create poll taxes — when we start to disallow the rules of the road, then we are in very dangerous territory as Americans.
With the new wave of voters being more diverse than ever before — more women, people of color, young voters — Jessica asked how the Democratic Party can include them in the political process. Stacey has a clear answer: engage early and often.
Stacey: Our first responsibility is to realize [that] elections are year-round — that we are constantly deciding who is in charge and who is leading us. The challenge we’ve had as Democrats is we tend to focus on the day of the election and not on the process of turning out voters.
We changed the playbook in Georgia by beginning our primary with a focus on the general, so we were investing in communities that were overlooked early…We did the work early of seeing these communities and understanding what their needs are by centering communities of color, by centering marginalized communities, disadvantaged communities, young people. You signal very early that you value their voices. And by engaging with them from the very beginning, they feel an ownership over the process. That’s how you increase turnout.
In between serving her constituents and delivering the response for the State of the Union, Stacey is an avid writer. She made the decision to pen under a different name, Selena Montgomery. How did she come up with her alter-ego?
Stacey: When I was writing my first romance novel, I was also writing my treatise on the operational dissonance of the unrelated business income tax exemption. These two were coming out at the same time…my publisher and I both simultaneously recognized that no one was going to buy a romance novel by Alan Greenspan.
So, I decided I needed a more provocative name, and was watching an A&E biography of Elizabeth Montgomery who plays Samantha on Bewitched, and I was like, “Ehhhh, Samantha…no.” And she had this evil cousin Serena, and I was like “I don’t like Serena, but I do like Selena.” So I became Selena Montgomery!
Stacey left us with one resonating thought: we have to try.
Stacey: We don’t have to enter politics as politicians. We are all part of politics — our lives are governed by the decisions made by others. I want to be one of the decision makers; and if I’m not a decision maker, I want to make certain that the person making those choices know my voice.
So I encourage everyone, especially those from disadvantaged or marginalized communities, to refuse to allow the possibility of failure to interfere with the likelihood of success.
Click above to listen to the full episode, and subscribe to Stated on your favorite podcast app.
