If you were happy with the outcome of this election, you have Stacey Abrams to thank for it. During the 2018 election, Abrams ran for state governor of Georgia. She made history by becoming the Democratic nominee in the first place, as the first Black woman to ever be nominated in a gubernatorial election. She ended up losing to Republican Brian Kemp, but it was because of her loss that she had such a huge impact on the 2020 election results.Â
In 2018, Stacey Abrams noticed something about the election results. She was one of the first to point out Georgia’s history of voter suppression in the media following the 2018 election. Four large counties in Georgia had reported no mail-in votes, and more counties were reporting long poll lines and fewer and fewer voters. Mail-in voting increased by 13.1% in 2020, due namely to the coronavirus pandemic. It was very probable that the problems with mail-in voting Stacey Abrams identified in Georgia would have been the same problems around the country, however, Stacey Abrams thought ahead. Because of her initiative to stop voter suppression, thousands of voters in Georgia were able to vote. She raised millions of dollars for this cause, all by grassroots funding.Â
Stacey Abrams’ organization combating voter suppression, Fair Fight, helped thousands of voters in Georgia get registered to vote, request and send in mail-in ballots, and transported many voters to their polling locations. Fair Fight was able to give many Georgia residents a voice, and because of her efforts, Abrams is credited by the Associated Press for possibly being the key to turning Georgia blue in the 2020 election.Â
So if you were excited about the results of the election, you have Stacey Abrams to thank for it. She was a key player in Biden’s ability to secure the electoral college votes, and without her, mail-in and voter registration would’ve been a lot harder. Â