Georgia’s former House Minority Leader, Stacey Abrams, is one of many minority women to credit for the state’s remarkable political flip from red-leaning to blue. 

Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. She has been declared a huge asset to Biden’s presidential win and an inspiration to many while representing the black community. Viola Davis, the first African-American actress to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting,” wrote to Abrams on Twitter expressing her appreciation, “This American citizen would love to thank you from the bottom of her heart!!”

Despite her slim loss to Republican candidate Brian Kemp in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, Abrams has continued to stay active in politics by raising $6 million for the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff elections in January. As she continues to stay involved, Abrams and grassroots organizations (collective action from the local level to affect change at the local, regional, national, or international level) across Georgia have assisted in registering more than 800,000 new voters in the once-red state. According to the Financial Times, “In 2014, Ms. Abrams set up a group called the New Georgia Project focused on registering and mobilising black voters.” It stated that “two years ago she formed another organization, Fair Fight Action, to tackle voter suppression after she lost the Georgia governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp by less than a percentage point.” 

Many voters in Georgia, while in line to cast their ballots, remembered the narrow difference in votes that elected Brian Kemp as governor. Now with the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, they most certainly did not want history to repeat itself. It was just as if Stacey Abrams was a tangible reminder to vote now and vote wisely, because every single vote counts.

The big picture lies in simply acknowledging Stacey Abrams’s significance and profound contribution to the people of Georgia. In helping fellow Georgians to vote, she is taking one of many steps to end voter suppression.