Voting rights activist and former candidate for governor of Georgia Stacey Abrams talks about the process of voting rights that made Georgia a swing state in the election and the broader political dynamics taking place in the state of Georgia in her interview with MSNBC.
“What we been able to do in this state is acknowledge, harness and now invest in that demographic change, and in reality is that trend is not going to reverse itself, we are going to continue to see a diversification of the state of Georgia,” Abrams said when asked about the long term consequences of what Georgia becomes regardless of the voting results.
Abrams stated that by the end of the decade, it has been projected that Georgia will be a majority-minority state. And that will signal that any party that wants to be competitive in the state will have to address the issues of healthcare, jobs, and justice.
“If you look at the work done of Helen Butler, Helen Kim Ho who is working early in the Korean and Asian American communities, Jerry Gonzalez who is doing a lot of work with the Latina community, what we have seen is a steady change in demography, but we know electoral politics always lag behind the demographic change,” Abrams stated.
Abrams talked about how the state is competitive due to the resolution of serving all the people in Georgia and believes that’s why the state will continue to make gains over the next decade.
When asked how other states that are headed towards increase diversification and demographic change should do to translate electoral results Abrams pointed out that they must make sure Republican legislatures don’t reinvest in voter suppression as their weapon of victory.
“Acknowledge the legitimacy of ideality. That race, that marginalization, community, sexual orientation, gender identity, that poverty and class they all matter, people make decisions based on their lived experiences, and we have to acknowledge it, center it, and run on it.”
Abrams said in Georgia specifically, they stopped hiding from the people they were trying to serve and asked how they could help them. That was the pathway to fully harness the demographic changes and convert them into permanent electoral victories.