I abso-freaking-lutely love Stacy Abrams. I can’t even tell you why I like her so much, but when I listen to her talk, I always decide that she’s my favorite politician ever. When I saw that she posted on her Instagram that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer had asked her to deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union Address – I was so entirely happy. She will be both the first non-sitting public official and the first black woman to deliver the rebuttal. Not only do I think it’s a really wonderful move for the Democratic party, but I love the statement that it sends. If you don’t know, Stacey Abrams ran for the Georgia governor race, and if she would have won she would have been the first African American female governor. Ever. If reading that sentence confuses and upsets you, you’re not alone. While she did lose, she only lost to Brian Kemp (the Republican opponent) by 2 points– the closest that any Georgia democrat has ever gotten to beating their Republican opponent. That’s a really big deal, and it indicates a shift in the tide of where America is headed. If a democrat in Georgia can almost win, a black woman who ran on ideals of equality and love and kindness at that, then I like where we are headed as a country.
But the reason I love Stacy Abrams delivering the State of the Union address so much (besides the fact that Stacy Abrams is incredible and I think that she should be shown on every single television in America) is that she lost. Yes- that she lost. For so long, politics has been about showing the winning faces– winning, winning, winning. And the truth is, a platform of equality, love, kindness, and justice doesn’t always win. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t. But does that mean that we stop fighting for the ideals that we believe in? Does that mean that when what we support and believe in with our whole hearts doesn’t win, we decide to move on and support someone else who is just a little less different, who will be liked by more people? No. If supporting Hilary Clinton while living in Mississippi taught me anything, it’s how easy it can be to settle for less. How easy it is to cave under the idea of, “well, people just don’t like her. Maybe I could find a moderate to support? Maybe I’ll be less disappointed then next time elections come around?”
The Democratic decision to ask Stacy Abrams to deliver the State of the Union response shows that what matters to the party isn’t winning. Winning, of course, is really nice and winning elections changes things for the better. But at the heart of everything, I want to support a party who fearlessly stands by their ideals, who fiercely stands up for diversity, absolutely, every single time– regardless of if they win that time around or not. I want to support a party who loses with dignity and does not change one single thing about their ideals, who comes back stronger than ever, and who puts the woman who lost the most watched governor race of the year on every single television in America. It would have been much easier to ask a fairly uncontroversial Democrat, or even one that held public office, to deliver the speech. But they didn’t, and instead, chose the harder route for the sake of love and doing the right thing– which is really what I want for my entire life to be about. Tune in on Tuesday night, I know I will!