What’s next for Stacey Abrams? Powerful Trump rebuttal raises calls for senate and presidential bids
A nationally-televised speech can have the power to catapult a relatively unknown lawmaker into the spotlight and launch a prolific political career that shapes generations of American society.
For Stacey Abrams, that opportunity came on Tuesday night.
Georgia’s 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate provided her party’s official response to Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address, offering a message of hope and unity while calling out the president’s falsities and exaggerated claims surrounding illegal immigration.
"Even as I am very disappointed by the president’s approach to our problems, I still don’t want him to fail,” Ms Abrams said on Tuesday night. “But we need him to tell the truth and to respect his duties and respect the extraordinary diversity that defines America. Our progress has always been found in the refuge, in the basic instinct of the American experiment, to do right by our people."
The message appeared to resonate with Americans across the country, including political campaign experts and voters alike, who called on the 45-year-old politician to run for the US Senate in Georgia — or even the White House.
“Stacey Abrams for Senate or president or emperor or honestly whatever she damn pleases,” Amanda Litman, a former director of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, wrote in a tweet following the speech.
Ms Abrams, who previously served as the minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017, has reportedly been courted by Chuck Schumer and other Democratic officials to launch a bid for the US Senate in her home state.
It remains unclear when and how the popular Democrat may serve in an elected capacity; after narrowly losing her 2018 gubernatorial race – an election shrouded in controversy after being overseen by Ms Abrams’ opponent, Brian Kemp, Georgia’s former secretary of state – she launched a non-profit called Fair Fight, focused on restoring voting rights and accessibility across the country.
She has reportedly held lofty political goals since she was a teenager, keeping an excel sheet of her potential career trajectory since she was 18 years old, according to Cosmopolitan. Ms Abrams has reportedly envisfaed a presidential run for herself in 2028.
Calls for Ms Abrams to launch her candidacy ahead of the 2020 elections were ignited in the moments following her speech on Tuesday night, with her supporters noting a clear contrast between her address and that of Donald Trump.
The president lambasted illegal immigration and renewed his vows to build a wall across the US-Mexico border, while Ms Abrams called for “compassionate treatment at the border”.
“Democrats stand ready to effectively secure our ports and borders, but we must all embrace that from agriculture to health care – America is stronger with immigrants, not walls,” she said.
Dan Pfeiffer, who served as a senior adviser to Barack Obama and tweeted “Stacey Abrams should run for President” on Tuesday night, told the New York Times Ms Abrams could energize Democratic voters to flock to the polls in 2020.
“I have no idea if she can win the nomination, but neither does anyone else,” he said in an email to the newspaper. “What I do know is that she can inspire people to activism and that is key to a Democrat winning back the White House.”
