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Stacey Abrams on Government Reform
Democratic Gubernatorial Challenger (GA); 2020 Veepstakes contender
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Ensure everyone trusts the system, and it's worthy of that
ABRAMS: I think it's always dangerous to undermine the integrity of elections without evidence. When we challenged voter suppression, we were able to prove it, we were able to correct for it in many ways, and that's why we saw a dramatic increase in
turnout from 2018 to 2020 where more voters were able to cast their ballots and have those ballots counted. my mission is to ensure that everyone trusts the system and that we make certain that it's a system that's worthy of that trust.
Source: ABC This Week interview for 2022 Georgia gubernatorial race
, Jan 3, 2021
Only obligation we have is make sure every vote is counted
It's important for us to recognize that no one is entitled to victory. The only obligation we have is to ensure that every voter has the right to have their voice heard. I never challenged the outcome of the election. I challenged the system that denied
access to the right to vote. I find it very troubling that, instead of fighting to make certain that every voter can have their vote counted, that they're challenging in an attempt to declare victory for someone who clearly lost the election.
Source: CNN State of the Union on 2022 Georgia Gubernatorial race
, Jan 3, 2021
Fair Fight Georgia helped Biden and Democratic Senate
Stacey Abrams' political future is the subject of intense speculation after she helped turn Georgia blue for President-elect Joe Biden. A gubernatorial primary will take place to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp; Abrams is considered to be the presumed
frontrunner for the nomination.Since her first governor run in 2018, Abrams has since escalated her organizing and mobilizing efforts with Fair Fight, the group she founded in the aftermath of that election, and offered a strong closing pitch to
voters to "make a plan to vote early" leading up to Nov. 3.
"One of the ways we were able to flip Georgia was because I have been working on it for ten years," Abrams went on. "I know the work we did across this country through Fair Fight 2020 made
certain we had enough states that flipped back that we could work together to make certain Joe Biden became president, and now I'm focused on getting the last piece across the finish line, and that is the U.S. Senate race on January 5th in Georgia."
Source: The Daily Beast blog on 2022 Georgia Gubernatorial race
, Nov 12, 2020
Fair Fight: Bedrock guarantee of right to vote
None of our ambitions are possible without the bedrock guarantee of our right to vote. Let's be clear: voter suppression is real. From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots,
we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy.While I acknowledged the results of the 2018 election here in Georgia--I did not and we cannot accept efforts to undermine our right to vote. That's why I started a nonpartisan organization called
Fair Fight to advocate for voting rights.
This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country. We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be
cast and counted is a "power grab." The foundation of our moral leadership around the globe is free and fair elections, where voters pick their leaders--not where politicians pick their voters.
Source: Democratic response to 2019 State of the Union speech
, Feb 5, 2019
Federal shutdowns are a stunt: furloughs hurt workers
Just a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers. They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn't received a paycheck in weeks. Making their livelihoods a pawn for political
games is a disgrace. The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the President of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people--but our values.
Source: Democratic response to 2019 State of the Union speech
, Feb 5, 2019
Deliberate interference & disenfranchisement in `18 election
Q: Stacey Abrams acknowledged that Republican Brian Kemp will be the next governor of Georgia:[VIDEO CLIP] ABRAMS: This is not a speech of concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper.[END VIDEO]
Q: Abrams
is now planning to launch a federal lawsuit against the state for what she called gross mismanagement of the election. Leader Abrams joins us. You said that "Democracy failed in Georgia," referring to, as you called it, incompetence and mismanagement.
But do you think that there was deliberate interference in the election?
ABRAMS: Yes. And I believe it began eight years ago with the systematic disenfranchisement of more than a million voters. It continued with the underfunding and disinvestment in
polling places, in training, and in the management of the county delivery of services. And I think it had its pinnacle in this race. There has been a dramatic discrepancy in the way absentee ballots are both allocated & counted across the 159 counties.
Source: CNN interviews for 2018 Georgia Governor race
, Nov 18, 2018
Disenfranchisement was death by 1,000 cuts
Q: When Brian Kemp was secretary of state, he did oversee a process in which 1.5 million voters were removed from the voting rolls. But isn't that just people being removed from the rolls because of inactivity?STACY ABRAMS: Maintaining clean voter
rolls is absolutely appropriate, but the vigor with which he did so--a perfect example is the 92-year-old civil rights activist who's lived in the West End of Atlanta for more than 40 years, has voted in every single election since 1968, and was removed
from the polls. She went to vote, and had to take more than 2 hours to get a provisional ballot. This is someone who has never failed to vote. The problem we have is that it's death by 1,000 cuts. It's not sufficient to simply purge voters from the
rolls for inactivity. He removed voters who were eligible. And the larger issue is this. Trust in our democracy relies on believing that there are good actors who are making this happen. And he was a horrible actor who benefited from his perfidy.
Source: CNN interviews for 2018 Georgia Governor race
, Nov 18, 2018
Sued in 2016 to stop "exact match" on voter registration
Q: Let me ask you about an issue that's been front and center for your campaign over the last week to 10 days. And that is this issue of rejected voter registration forms due to this issue of exact match. If it isn't an exact match, then suddenly the
registration gets thrown out. 70% of these registrations belong to African American voters. Do you believe this is an intentional decision by your opponent and the office that he runs?STACEY ABRAMS: Absolutely. I was part of a coalition that sued
him in 2016 to force him to stop using this process. And a federal judge agreed with us, said that he had unlawfully canceled more than 33,000 registrations. And they forced him to restore those registrations. In response, the Republicans passed a law
in the 2017 legislative session to allow him to do it again. And so the challenge is twofold. One is that we know this is a flawed system that has a disproportionate effect on people of color. But it also has the ability to erode trust in our system.
Source: Meet the Press interviews for 2018 Georgia Governor race
, Oct 14, 2018
Protect voter's rights against voter suppression tactics
As Minority Leader, Stacey fought back voter suppression tactics and introduced legislation to expand access to the ballot. Through the New Georgia Project, Stacey registered more than 200,000 people of color, forced the restoration of
33,000 illegally canceled voter applications, and defeated attempts to intimidate voters. As Governor, she will oppose policies that seek to undermine the rights of Georgians.
Source: 2018 Georgia Governor website StaceyAbrams.com
, Aug 17, 2017
Founded voter registration project
Dedicated to civic engagement, she founded the
New Georgia Project, which registered more than 200,000 voters of color between 2014 and 2016.
Source: 2018 Georgia Governor website StaceyAbrams.com
, Aug 17, 2017
Head of a voter registration group; focus on minorities
Republican Brian Kemp, who as secretary of state is Georgia's top elections official, and Democrat Stacey Abrams, the House minority leader and head of a voter registration group, have long sparred over election policy.Kemp advocated for stricter
voter ID laws to prevent what he called the threat of illegal voters casting ballots and Abrams contending those new rules could disenfranchise minorities, the disabled and the elderly.
But they clashed the sharpest during the 2014 after Abrams new
voter registration group, the New Georgia Project, announced ambitious goals to register 800,000 minority voters within a decade. The group said it submitted 86,000 voter registration forms during the 2014 cycle, but Kemp's office argued that tens of
thousands of applications had not been properly submitted. The voter group supported a coalition that sued Kemp's office again in 2016 over the cancellation of nearly 35,000 registration applications from 2013 to 2016 due to mismatched information.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 2018 Georgia governor race
, Apr 11, 2017
Exact-match process violates Voting Rights Act
HB 268: Seeks to void a recent federal court settlement requiring the Secretary of State to refine its voter registration process to exclude the "exact matching" process that led to the unlawful cancellation more than 30,000 voter registration
applications since 2013. The bill would also require non-partisan voter information groups and Election Protection groups providing to move their tables or booths beyond the 150 foot barrier and at least 25 feet away from voters standing in
line--depending upon the length and location of lines of voters throughout the course of Election Day. MY VOTE: NO. HB 268 would negatively impact reforms recently agreed to by the Secretary of State in the federal settlement of the "exact match"
federal voting rights lawsuit and would likely lead to further expensive and time-consuming litigation. Furthermore, it likely violates the First Amendment, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the National Voter Registration Act.
Source: 2018 campaign website on Georgia voting record HB 268
, Mar 30, 2017
Stop redistricting voters of color to dilute their votes
HB 515: This bill amends the boundaries of multiple House legislative districts. Of most concern, the new map packs African-American voters from Republican HD 40 into heavily Democratic HD 53.
In HD 111, the revised maps continue a process initiated in 2015 to dilute black votes by shifting voters into adjacent districts and by adding white voters to the district in 2017.
MY VOTE: NO. Voters of color are facing increased inconvenience by repeated shifts in their districts, in order to accommodate diminished GOP voting strength.
With each redrawing of the lines, voters of color are shifted to new legislators and divided from neighbors.
Source: 2018 campaign website on Georgia voting record HB 515
, Mar 30, 2017
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Other governors on Government Reform: |
Stacey Abrams on other issues: |
GA Gubernatorial: Andrew Hunt Brian Kemp Casey Cagle Hunter Hill Jason Carter Keisha Lance Bottoms Nathan Deal Shane Hazel Sonny Perdue GA Senatorial: Allen Buckley David Perdue Derrick Grayson Doug Collins Ed Tarver Jason Carter Jim Barksdale John Barrow Johnny Isakson Jon Ossoff Kelly Loeffler Matt Lieberman Raphael Warnock Shane Hazel Ted Terry Teresa Tomlinson Tom Price Valencia Stovall
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Gubernatorial Debates 2021:
NJ:
Incumbent Phil Murphy(D)
vs.State Rep. Jack Ciattarelli(R)
vs.Candidate Hirsh Singh(R)
VA:
Incumbent Ralph Northam(D,term-limited)
vs.A.G. Mark Herring(D)
vs.State Sen. Amanda Chase(R)
vs.Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax(D)
vs.State Rep. Jennifer Carroll Foy(D)
vs.State Rep. Lee Carter(D)
vs.Former Governor Terry McAuliffe(D)
vs.State Sen. Jennifer McClellan(D)
vs.State Rep. Kirk Cox(R)
Gubernatorial Debates 2022:
AK:
Incumbent Mike Dunleavy(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
AL:
Incumbent Kay Ivey(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
AR:
Incumbent Asa Hutchinson(R,term-limited)
vs.Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin(R)
vs.Trump Adviser Sarah Huckabee Sanders(R)
vs.A.G. Leslie Rutledge(R)
AZ:
Incumbent Doug Ducey(R,term-limited)
(no prospective opponents yet)
CA:
Incumbent Gavin Newsom(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
CO:
Incumbent Jared Polis(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
CT:
Incumbent Ned Lamont(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
FL:
Incumbent Ron DeSantis(R)
vs.U.S.Rep. Val Demings(? D)
vs.Former Gov.Charlie Crist(? D)
GA:
Incumbent Brian Kemp(R)
vs.Minority Leader Stacey Abrams(D)
vs.Senate candidate Shane Hazel(L)
HI:
Incumbent David Ige(D,term-limited)
vs.State Rep. Andria Tupola(R)
IA:
Incumbent Kim Reynolds(R)
vs.U.S.Rep. Cindy Axne(? R)
ID:
Incumbent Brad Little(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
IL:
Incumbent J. B. Pritzker(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
KS:
Incumbent Laura Kelly(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
MA:
Incumbent Charlie Baker(R)
vs.Harvard Professor Danielle Allen(D)
MD:
Incumbent Larry Hogan(R,term-limited)
vs.State Rep. Robin Ficker(R)
vs.State Rep. Peter Franchot(D)
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Gubernatorial Debates 2022 (continued):
ME:
Incumbent Janet Mills(D)
vs.Former Gov. Paul LePage(R)
MI:
Incumbent Gretchen Whitmer(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
MN:
Incumbent Tim Walz(DFL)
(no prospective opponents yet)
NE:
Incumbent Pete Ricketts(R,term-limited)
vs.U.S.Senator Bob Krist(R)
NH:
Incumbent Chris Sununu(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
NM:
Incumbent Michelle Lujan Grisham(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
NV:
Incumbent Steve Sisolak(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
NY:
Incumbent Andrew Cuomo(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
OH:
Incumbent Mike DeWine(R)
vs.Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley(? D)
OK:
Incumbent Kevin Stitt(R)
vs.State Sen. Ervin Yen(R)
OR:
Incumbent Kate Brown(D,term-limited)
vs.Gov. nominee Bud Pierce(R)
PA:
Incumbent Tom Wolf(D,term-limited)
(no prospective opponents yet)
RI:
Incumbent Gina Raimondo(D,term-limited)
(no prospective opponents yet)
SC:
Incumbent Henry McMaster(R)
vs.State Rep. James Emerson Smith(? D)
SD:
Incumbent Kristi Noem(R)
vs.State Rep. Billie Sutton(? D)
TN:
Incumbent Bill Lee(R)
vs.Senate nominee Marquita Bradshaw(? D)
TX:
Incumbent Greg Abbott(R)
vs.U.S.Rep. Allen West(? R)
VT:
Incumbent Phil Scott(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
WI:
Incumbent Tony Evers(D)
(no prospective opponents yet)
WY:
Incumbent Mark Gordon(R)
vs.Minority Leader Chris Rothfuss(D)
Gubernatorial Debates 2023:
KY:
Incumbent Andy Beshear(D)
vs.Former Gov. Matt Bevin(? R)
Senator Rand Paul(? R)
LA:
Incumbent John Bel Edwards(D,term-limited)
vs.Biden Adviser Cedric Richmond(? D)
vs.Senator John Neely Kennedy(? R)
MS:
Incumbent Tate Reeves(R)
(no prospective opponents yet)
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Page last updated: Feb 04, 2021