Posts tagged with "Stacey Abrams"

Above, former First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center last September. (Photo source: CNN)

Michelle Obama delivers urgent message about this year’s midterm elections

January 13, 2022

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has a message for Americans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections: “We’ve got to vote like the future of our democracy depends on it.”

In a letter titled “Fight For Our Vote,” which was published on Sunday, January 9, as an ad in The New York Times, Obama and her voting rights organization, When We All Vote, called on Americans to continue engaging in democracy amid a historic attack on voting rights.

CNN reports that Obama’s letter—which comes as Congress has yet to move on voting rights legislation at the federal level—was signed by 30 other civic engagement, voting rights and voter mobilization organizations including the NAACP, Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, Voto Latino Foundation, NextGen America, LeBron James’ More Than A Vote, and Rock the Vote.

“We stand united in our conviction to organize and turn out voters in the 2022 midterm elections, and make our democracy work for all of us,” Obama wrote in the letter.

The former FLOTUS laid out a plan of action and said, within the next year, When We All Vote and the coalition of other organizations will work to “recruit and train at least 100,000 volunteers” and “register more than a million new voters.”

Obama said the coalition will also enlist thousands of lawyers to protect American voters, work to educate Americans on how to ensure their vote is safe, and encourage at least 100,000 Americans to call on their Senators in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—two proposed pieces of legislation that have stalled in the Senate as a result of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome.

Obama’s letter—published days after the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riot—referenced the insurrection and the slew of voting restrictions passed at the state level across the country in its wake. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed the chamber will vote on whether to change the Senate’s legislative filibuster rules by Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 17, if Republicans block Democrats’ latest effort to advance voting rights legislation.

Citing obstacles to voting access throughout history, Obama wrote that in 2022, Americans must continue to fight for their rights.

“Generations of Americans have persevered through poll taxes, literacy tests, and laws designed to strip away their power—and they’ve done it by organizing, by protesting, and, most importantly, by overcoming the barriers in front of them in order to vote. And now, we’ve got to do the same,” Obama wrote.

Obama added: “We must give Congress no choice but to act decisively to protect the right to vote and make the ballot box more accessible for everyone.”

Research contact: @CNN

Above, former President Barack Obama (right) joins Democrat Terry McAuliffe on the campaign trail. (Photo source: Inside NoVa)

Obama to campaign for McAuliffe next week in tight race for Virginia governor

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October 13, 2021

Former President Barack Obama will join a rally for Terry McAuliffe next week as part of an all-out effort by Democrats to win Virginia’s gubernatorial race, The Hill reports.

Obama will join McAuliffe on October 23 in Richmond. The news comes after McAuliffe’s campaign announced that First Lady Jill Biden and former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will campaign with him this weekend.

McAuliffe, who is in a tight race with Republican Glenn Youngkin, made the announcement on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” exactly three weeks from Election Day in the Old Dominion. The voter registration deadline in Virginia is on Tuesday, October 12.

Youngkin’s campaign responded to the news, saying it was a sign McAuliffe’s campaign was getting nervous ahead of the election.

“Terry McAuliffe is scared because Virginians are roundly rejecting 40-year politician Terry McAuliffe’s plans to defund the police, strip parents of their rights to have a say in their children’s education, and to fire people who don’t follow his authoritarian vaccine mandates, so his response is to bring in more politicians to help draw a crowd larger than 12 people,” Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said in a statement to the Hill. “Glenn Youngkin is an outsider focused on delivering for the people of Virginia and making the state the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”

The two are locked in a close contest that may come down to turnout on both sides. Democrats have won the presidential race in Virginia every cycle since 2008, when Obama was on the ticket.

A Christopher Newport University poll released last week showed McAuliffe leading Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin by 4 points, within the survey’s 4.2 percentage point margin of error. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a “toss-up.”

Research contact: @thehill

Above, Stacey Abrams. (Photo source: She the People)

Stacey Abrams-led group kicks off campaign to rally young voters of color around voting rights bill

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June 9,2021

The voting rights group Fair Fight Action—founded and headed by activist and former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams—has announcing a month-long campaign to help mobilize young voters of color around the For the People Act (S. 1)—for the Senate version of the extensive voting rights bill championed by Democratic lawmakers, CBS reports.

The campaign, called Hot Call Summer, will last throughout June, and will feature virtual events, a paid media campaign and plans to text at least 10 million voters in 2022 battleground states that have seen controversial voting legislation move in state legislatures. 

“We can’t wait any longer for Congress to protect Americans’ freedom to vote, which is why we need Senators to pass the For The People Act,” Abrams said in an email to supporters first obtained by CBS News. “With voting rights under attack in 48 out of 50 state legislatures across the country, the moment has never been more urgent, and it will take all of us to ensure that Congress passes the voting rights protections our country and democracy desperately need.”

The announcement comes on the heels of West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s announcement in an opinion piece over the weekend that he’ll vote against the bill, which raises a significant roadblock in getting it passed.

“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster,” Manchin wrote in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on June 6.

He has instead urged his colleagues in the Senate to focus on passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which has some bipartisan support, but has not yet been introduced in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to bring the For the People Act to a vote by the end of June.

Research contact: @CBS

Above, MSNBC 'All In' host Chris Hayes discusses rumors of Biden sexual assault. (Photo source: Screen shot from MSNBC)

#FireChrisHayes trends after MSNBC host covers Biden sexual assault allegations

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April 30, 2020

The host of MSNBC’s show “All-In,” Chris Hayes, sparked backlash from the left when he became the first prime time host on the network to cover a former aide’s sexual assault allegations against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. As a result, the hashtag #FireChrisHayes began trending on Twitter, The Hill reported on April 30.

Hayes welcomed New York Magazine Writer-at-Large Rebecca Traister to his program Wednesday night, April 29, after she penned an essay, entitled “The Biden Trap,” which was critical of the former vice president for not addressing Tara Reade’s allegations in any interviews—and, thereby, leaving Democratic women supporting his candidacy to answer questions about the allegations for him.

“What this is creating is a perfect storm … where women are being asked … to answer for these charges,” Traister told Hayes. “In part because of the vacuum created by Joe Biden who is not yet really directly answering these questions, and certainly, not doing what I wish he would, which is to say: ‘Please direct your questions about these allegations to me, and not the women that are out there offering their support to my candidacy.”

Biden has conducted dozens of national and local interviews in recent weeks, but has yet to be asked about the allegations, The Hill said. His campaign denied the allegations in a statement on March 28.

However, Reade said last month that Biden sexually assaulted her in a secluded part of Capitol Hill when he was a senator in 1993. She was backed up by a former neighbor, her mother, and her brother. She was one of several women who came forward last year to say that Biden’s public touching had made her uncomfortable. He later said he would adjust his behavior.

“The man in question, the nominee, the former vice president, is going to have to address [the allegations],” Hayes argued during the segment. “And not have [former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate] Stacey Abrams or anyone else, or [Senator] Kirsten Gillibrand [D-New York] do that.”

Abrams is reportedly on a list of candidates Biden is considering to be his running mate. She told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday night that she believed Biden while citing a New York Times investigation written earlier this month, before more corroboration of Reade’s allegations was reported.

“The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible. I believe Joe Biden,” Abrams said.

The Times later pushed back on the assertion that it had cleared Biden of any wrongdoing, The Hill reports. “Our investigation made no conclusion either way,” a Times spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement.

Several journalists praised Hayes for covering the story while knowing the potential for backlash from some on the left.

Reade has said that she confronted Biden’s aides, but the aides Reade listed have gone on the record to say that they were never confronted about the allegation.

Reade also says she filed a complaint with the human resources office in the Senate about the allegations of inappropriate touching. Media outlets, however, have not been able to track down the complaint, according to The Hill.

Reade did not file a police report at the time. She filed one with the Washington, D.C., police last month.

Research contact: @thehill

Stacey Abrams. (Photo source: The Cut)

Stacey Abrams for VP? Popular Georgia public servant says she’d accept an offer

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August 15, 2019

Stacey Abrams, who lost her 2018 gubernatorial race in Georgia by a narrow margin to Republican Brian Kemp, said she would be “honored” to be considered as a running mate for any of the two dozen hopefuls who are making a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination next year, The Hill reported on August 14.

“I would be honored to be considered by any nominee,” she said in an interview with The New York Times that was published Wednesday. 

Abrams already had announced on August 13 that she would not throw her hat into the presidential race-but that she would work instead to combat voter suppression and increase participation in the 2020 census.

However, her personal charisma and political acuity are not to be ignored: As another option, she said she would privileged to be chosen as the vice presidential candidate, should the nominee approach her.

According to The Hill, the Georgia Democrat has cited voter suppression as a reason for her defeat, noting the removal of thousands of people who had failed to cast ballots in recent elections from voting rolls and hours-long lines at some precincts.

“I’ve been thinking about this for the last few weeks, an I’ve just come to the decision that my best value add, the strongest contribution I can give to this primary, would be to make sure our nominee is coming into an environment where there’s strong voter protections in place,” she told the Times.

Abrams added that she did not want to wage a campaign “simply because the office is available” and that she’s “been pleased with the direction of the field,” urging all the candidates to also prioritize voter suppression and campaign in Georgia.

Several Democratic presidential candidates already have vowed to (or suggested they might) pick a female running mate if nominated. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey)  vowed in April to pick a woman as his vice president, while former Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said in March it would “very difficult not to select a woman” as his running mate.”

Research contact: @thehill

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. (Photo source: ThailandToday)

Stacey Abrams wins big in Georgia

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May 24, 2018

While the polls in Georgia officially closed at 7 p.m. on May 22, the window of opportunity for Democrat Stacey Abrams—the first black woman to win a gubernatorial nomination for any major party in that state—opened up, The Root reported.

With only 34% of the vote in that early in the evening, “everybody from the Atlanta Journal Constitution to CNN to Stevie Wonder” could see that Stacey Abrams’ 75% to 25% lead over fellow Democrat Stacey Evans wouldn’t disappear with a few more counties left to check in, The Root said.

The landslide had not been predicted. Back on April 19, when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News released their latest polling numbers, more than half (52%) of likely Georgia Democratic voters still had not decided who would get their vote in next month’s primary election for governor. At that time, roughly one-third of likely Democratic voters said they backed Abrams; with Evans attracting about half of that, or 15% of the electorate.

According to The Root, Abrams’ victory not only puts Georgia on the map but heals an unnecessary and overblown wound in the Democratic Party, just in time for what might be a nation-changing, midterm election. Abrams secured the support of the two frontrunners in the last national Democratic primaries —Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-Maine) and his Our Revolution advocates and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D-New York).

However, the news outlet warned,”The work is only just beginning. There will a be tough race against either Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp [in November].”

Research contact: gbluestein@ajc.com