‘It’s not about winning an election’: Stacey Abrams’ legacy in Georgia

After a critical runoff election that helped Democrats cement their majority in the US Senate, Georgia's status as a political battleground with national influence has become more apparent. Georgia now boasts a highly engaged electorate that continues to turn out in record numbers election after election.

While various factors contribute to this, many in Georgia point to the state's grassroots coalition, built over the last decade, that sought to register, engage and educate voters like never before. At the helm of this coalition sits former state House minority leader and two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Throughout the south, Black women have a long history of organizing their communities to redefine and exercise political power. Abrams is one of the latest in a long line of Black women, which includes civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker, who are building upon this legacy and joining in the marathon of the fight for democracy.

Despite two losses in her race for governor, Abrams' impact has continued to shape Georgia's political sphere. Abrams, the founder of two of Georgia's largest voting rights organizations, Fair Fight and New Georgia Project, embarked on a mission nearly a decade ago to expand and engage the state's electorate by courting voters whose voices had long been ignored.

"The state [Democrats] were at a crossroads," said Kendra Cotton, the CEO of New Georgia Project. "We were either going to continue down that path of pursuing the white moderate, or we were going to move and be all in on the path of expanding the electorate and really trying to educate and intentionally engage Black folks, Brown folks and young folks, into participating in the electoral process at a higher level."

Through a multi-racial, cross-movement, grassroots campaign, Abrams and her allies developed a political infrastructure that increased turnout among Black, Asian, Latinx, low-income and youth voters, who tend to vote for more progressive candidates. Organizations like Black Voters Matter, Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, and New Georgia Project, all led by Black women, served as pillars within a growing coalition, reaching communities across the state to register and engage record numbers of voters.

At the close of the 2022 runoff election, Georgia had over seven million active voters, according to the secretary of state's office. Of that seven million, 18 to 24-year-olds represent the largest voting population.

While it is clear that Abrams is not the only force behind Georgia's growing electorate and a renewed focus on voting rights throughout the nation, Cotton said she serves as a "flashpoint" in the history of American politics that many were able to galvanize around.

"We weren't buying into Abrams as a candidate, but into the vision that the future of the elections really does lie within its young folks and Black and Brown people who have been the backbone of this nation for generations, but didn't fully know how to assert the power that they had."

Santiago Mayer, founder and executive director of the youth-led voting organization Voters of Tomorrow, says that Abrams served as an inspiration for his organization and his work as a youth organizer working to support and amplify the voice of young voters.

"The work of getting people to vote and make their voices heard is simply one of the most important jobs anyone can do because it guides our future," said Mayer. "Stacey Abrams showed us how to carry that legacy and build upon it, and what we can accomplish when you help those whose voices have been neglected so long really make an impact and generate real action."

Young Black voters in Georgia reached a new record during the 2020 election, with 500,000 Black voters aged 18 to 29 turning out. This greatly contributed to the overall growth of Georgia's Black voters. In total, the number of Black voters in the state increased 25% from 2016 to 2020, as Asian and Latinx voters experienced a 12% and 18% increase, respectively.

Still, as Georgia's electorate expanded, so grew opposition. After the 2020 election, Georgia took the national stage as Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the election. Abrams was a focus of GOP ire, receiving attacks from Trump and his allies and Governor Brian Kemp and his allies.

Following unfounded claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election by Trump and his allies, Kemp and Georgia's GOP seemingly developed a solution to a problem that never existed. The result was a comprehensive and strict new voter law that impacted everything from who's allowed to help voters register to where resources can be distributed to voters waiting in Georgia's notoriously long precinct lines.

Kemp and other GOP officials also worked to mark Abrams as an election denier because of her claims of voter suppression throughout the state in 2020.

Nonetheless, Abrams was one of the key players in expanding Georgia's electorate in 2022, delivering a key democratic victory during the presidential election to the chagrin of Trump.

Because of the state's highly engaged voting rights coalition and clear voting rights infrastructure helmed by Abrams, voters and activists alike were equipped to navigate a system that placed new barriers on the path to casting a ballot. They moved in step with uniform messaging, spreading out across the state and guiding voters through the ever-changing electoral landscape of Georgia.

And the results were clear. With concerted efforts to encourage voters to vote early to mitigate potential issues this election season, nearly 3 million people cast early votes, a record for the state. The turnout, experts say, illustrates the gradual progress critical to enacting the lasting change necessary for strong political shifts.

"Party building on a state and a national level takes time and resources to build an apparatus to harness those shifts into real political change, and we can't forget that," said Dr Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. "[Abrams] was able to help galvanize Georgia democrats, build a bridge between various groups of constituents and really energize the electorate."

While Abrams did not necessarily bear the fruit of this energized electorate during her two gubernatorial campaigns, many Democrats, both on a statewide and national level, did. Most notably, Georgia voters played a significant role in the 2020 election of Joe Biden, the first democratic candidate to win Georgia's electoral votes in two decades.

"Any time you see [senators] Ossoff and Warnock and President Biden in Washington, you are looking at the work of Stacey Abrams," said the Rev Al Sharpton.

Whether because of policy, party, gender or race, Abrams did not find success in her bids to be the next governor of Georgia. However, her ability to mobilize voters, expand political power and develop a political infrastructure actively redefining the South will not soon be forgotten. As Cotton explains, "The gains that we have now cannot be divorced from the vision that she had then."

In her only post-election interview earlier this month, Abrams revealed that while she may run again, she will maintain her role in the fight to redefine voter outreach, expand the electorate and amplify the voices of voters long ignored.

"The work that I do and the work that I am so committed to is about engaging voters year-round because it's not just about somebody winning an election," Abrams said. "It's about your life getting better and that should be our mission."