Democrat Stacey Abrams was picked as the state’s first female nominee for governor from either major party in Georgia Tuesday. If Abrams ultimately prevails in November, she’d become the first black female governor in any state capital.
Abrams, 44, is an Atlanta-area attorney and former state lawmaker who says Democrats can flip the GOP-run state only by expanding the electorate and attracting younger and nonwhite voters to the Democratic column.
The U.S. currently has six women governors _ two Democrats and four Republicans _ serving in Alabama, Iowa, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon and Rhode Island. With 2018 shaping up to be the biggest boon for women in American politics since a wave of female candidates were elected to Congress in 1992, the rising influence of black women at the polls is hard to ignore.
According to Higher Heights, a national organization focused on increasing black women’s political participation, more than 70 percent of black women voters went to the polls when Obama was re-elected in 2012, outpacing turnout by white women (65.6 percent), white men (62.6 percent), and black men (61.4 percent).
Abrams received support from actress Tracee Ellis Ross and California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, a potential 2020 presidential contender who also campaigned for Bottoms.
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