Hear her strong voice in her own words.
By Colleen Fogarty — Written on Nov 11, 2020
Stacey Abrams is a lawyer, civil rights activist, author, and House Representative for Georgia, a critical swing state in the 2020 election.
Abrams pulled strongly for President-Elect Joe Biden. Although the Peach State usually appears red on the electoral map, Georgia’s electoral votes contributed to Biden’s win.
Stacey Abrams has strong convictions and uses her powerful voice for the advocacy of all Americans.
Read on to see Abrams’ beliefs and hopes for her state and the country in her own words.
Best Stacey Abrams Quotes
1. “Our priorities should ideally engage heart and head.” — Stacey Abrams
Logic and empathy are not mutually exclusive.
2. “Never tell yourself no. Let someone else do it.” — Stacey Abrams
There will always be people who don’t believe in you, but you must believe in yourself if you’re going to get anything done.
3. “Yet, from limiting original voting rights to white men, to the elitist and racist origins of the Electoral College, American democracy has always left people out of participation, by design.” — Stacey Abrams
The Electoral College is obsolete, but has yet to be eradicated.
4. “It’s frustrating to realize we’re taught to be humble in a way that men are not.” — Stacey Abrams
Raise boys and girls the same, we are all just people.
5. “Voters will never agree with everything you say, but they get excited to know that a politician is willing to tell them the truth. They want to trust that a candidate won’t suppress their values to try to appeal to a specific group. A voter wants to know that the one in whom they invest their time and trust is an authentic candidate who stands on the values that they hold.” — Stacey Abrams
It’s about trust, not total agreement.
6. “Voting is a constitutional right in the United States, a right that has been reiterated three separate times via constitutional amendment.” — Stacey Abrams
Yet, it is continuously denied to many Americans.
7. “Victory must begin to mean more than winning a single election. Our obligation, in Georgia and across the nation, is to seize the high road by changing how we campaign and to whom. Demography is not destiny; it’s opportunity. We have to expand our vision of who belongs in the big tent of progress, invest in their inclusion, and talk to them about what’s at stake.” — Stacey Abrams
Democracy is for all; we must start treating it that way.
8. “Because I learned long ago that winning doesn’t always mean you get the prize. Sometimes you get progress, and that counts.” — Stacey Abrams
Every step counts.
9. “Because I suddenly saw opportunity where I had never been brave enough to look before, and I found that failure wasn’t fatal, that otherness held an extraordinary power for clarity and invention.” — Stacey Abrams
Diverse people bring diverse perspectives.
10. “Full citizenship rights are the bare minimum one should expect from the government. Yet, for two-thirds of our history, full citizenship was denied to those who built this country from theory to life. African slaves and Chinese workers and Native American environmentalists and Latino gauchos and Irish farmers—and half the population: women.” — Stacey Abrams
We must correct this hypocrisy.
11. “I confronted the expected stereotypes by knowing what they were and building an alternate narrative about myself.” — Stacey Abrams
Write your own story, do not let strangers define who you are.
12. “Worse, because the rules differ from state to state, and the implementation changes from county to county, access to democracy becomes a lottery of location.” — Stacey Abrams
Where you live should not determine the decibel of your voice.
13. “We are strongest when we see the most vulnerable in our society, bear witness to their struggles, and then work to create systems to make it better.” — Stacey Abrams
Progress is about uplifting those who are put down, not pushing the top even higher above those who struggle.
14. “A Dreamer—a young person brought to the United States without documentation—asked me about her future after high school. She had applied to colleges in state, but Georgia’s rules forbade her from being accepted to the flagship universities, despite her qualifications. Other state schools were required to charge her out-of-state tuition, at costs that could be nearly four times as high.” — Stacey Abrams
She is being punished for choices that she did not make.
15. “First things first' might be a cliche, but it's a useful one that means prioritizing what matters most to you and believing there is no wrong answer.” — Stacey Abrams
Do what is most important first.
16. “To achieve our goals of educating bold and ambitious children, we must invest in enriching, quality early child care and learning.” — Stacey Abrams
We reap what we sow.
17. “We must use words to uplift and include. We can use our words to fight back against oppression and hate. But we must also channel our words into action.” — Stacey Abrams
As well as acknowledging the problems, we must offer solutions.
18. “Saving democracy is not an overblown call to action — we are in trouble.” — Stacey Abrams
The issues we face in this country are not to be ignored or taken lightly.
19. “Economic inequality is systemic, and one of the most effective barriers is ignorance about how money works beyond the basics.” — Stacey Abrams
The complications and the nuances are what will guide us to progress.
20. “Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot. We know in our heart of hearts that voting is a sacred right––the fount from which all other rights flow.” — Stacey Abrams
We need to be able to have a say for any of our needs to be met.
21. “What’s not right is giving credence to bad actions, and thereby becoming complicit.” — Stacey Abrams
If you see something, say something.
22. “Fundamentally, the solution to economic insecurity is economic prosperity — an achievable goal. But for anyone who has grown up without financial security, there's a shadow that lies over even those who move towards independence: lack of financial literacy.” — Stacey Abrams
We must break the vicious poverty cycle.
23. “My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I'm relentless, you know I'm persistent, and you know I'm smart.” — Stacey Abrams
Your identity is never a fault.
24. “Confederate monuments belong in museums where we can study and reflect on that terrible history, not in places of honor across our state.” — Stacey Abrams
We cannot ignore what has happened, but we can change the way we remember.
25. “I come from a family that hunted. I know how to hunt, but I don't do it.” — Stacey Abrams
We do not need to make the same choices as our parents.
26. “Today, the ones barring access have shifted from using billy clubs and hoses to using convoluted rules to make it harder to register and stay on the rolls, cast a ballot, or have that ballot counted. To move forward, we must understand the extent to which the shrinking conservative minority will go to create barriers to democracy.” — Stacey Abrams
We must understand the problem in order to combat it.
27. “To build a truly diverse economy with a pipeline of skilled labor, technical college in Georgia should be free, and students should be able to graduate debt-free from the public institution of their choice.” — Stacey Abrams
We cannot treat education as a requirement and then price it as a luxury.
28. “Clean energy jobs can exist across the state and create micro-economies to support struggling communities. Local governments can use advanced energy to retrain workers and create local jobs, and the positive economic impacts can remain local.” — Stacey Abrams
A win for the economy and the environment
29. “The formerly incarcerated—returning citizens—often face a cruel irony in America. Having paid their debt to society, too many are banned from the ballot box that could help them dismantle policies that essentially extend their sentences.” — Stacey Abrams
Although they have been freed, they still are not free.
30. “That's just always the way my mind has worked, is taking something that seems impossible, or too big, and then breaking it down into these pieces so that I know how to get there.” — Stacey Abrams
This way of thinking is the key to achieving any large goal
31. “Being a token is real, and sometimes the urge to take a backseat so we don’t have to be ‘the one’ is tempting. But denying fear of disappointing everyone to avoid responsibility for everyone doesn’t do anyone any good either.” — Stacey Abrams
Open opportunities for others, don’t just sit quietly happy to be there.
32. “Voter suppression works its might by first tripping and causing to stumble the unwanted voter, then by convincing those who see the obstacle course to forfeit the race without even starting to run.” — Stacey Abrams
Voter suppression is a slippery slope.
33. “I will stand up on issues as they arise, making sure that the voices of Georgians are always being heard.” — Stacey Abrams
Stacey Abrams will stand up for you and offer her hand for you to stand up as well.
More for You:
Colleen Fogarty is a writer who covers self-care, astrology, and relationship topics.